...biographer. The second, no less surely, is to maintain his own freedom of spirit. It is not his business to be complimentary; it is his business to lay bare...intentions. To quote the words of a Master — " Je n'impose rien; je ne propose rien: j 'expose. " LS A list of the principal sources from which I have...

...biographer. The second, no less surely, is to maintain his own freedom of spirit. It is not his business to be complimentary; it is his business to lay bare...intentions. To quote the words of a Master — " Je n'impose rien; je ne propose rien: j 'expose. " LS A list of the principal sources from which I have...

...biographer. The second, no less surely, is to maintain his own freedom of spirit. It is not his business to be complimentary; it is his business to lay bare...understands them. That is what I have aimed at in this book—to lay bare the facts of some cases, as I understand them, dispassionately, impartially, and...

...biographer. The second no less surely is to maintain his own freedom of spirit. It is not his business to be complimentary; it is his business to lay bare the facts of the case, as he understands them." Lytton Strachey's portrait of Florence Nightingale is perhaps the most extreme and illuminating illustration...

...of selection, of detachment, of design ? . . . What I have aimed at in this book is to lay bare 167 the facts of some cases, as I understand them, dispassionately,...intentions. To quote the words of a master — ' Je n'impose rien ; je ne propose rien : j'expose.' " There is a " bite " about these remarks which prepares...

...biographer. The second, no less surely, is to maintain his own freedom of spirit. It is not his business to be complimentary; it is his business to lay bare the facts of the case, as he understands them." A becoming brevity ... no compliments . . . the facts! An admirable program for any historian! I took...

...biographer. The second, no less surely, is to maintain his own freedom of spirit. It is not his business to be complimentary ; it is his business to lay bare the facts of the case, as he understands them." Strachey, true to his profession, took pains to understand himself as well as the people whose lives...

...claimed instead to preserve ... a becoming brevity, ... to maintain his own freedom of spirit, ... to lay bare the facts of some cases, as I understand...dispassionately, impartially, and without ulterior intentions. The claim had an agreeable speciousness. On turning from the preface to the narratives that followed,...

...What is puzzling in Strachey's preface is his idealization of impartiality. "It is [the biographer's] business to lay bare the facts of the case, as he...dispassionately, impartially and without ulterior intentions." But anyone who has read so much as a paragraph of Strachey's masterpiece knows that what makes it the...

...Pathography Strachey said in the preface's final paragraph that it is not the biographer's business "to be complimentary; it is his business to lay bare...dispassionately, impartially, and without ulterior intentions." Strachey was saying that a biography belongs to the author, not to the subject. His approach fit well...