Short description
In this biography, Strachey exposes the self-seeking ambitions of Cardinal Manning and the manipulative, neurotic Florence Nightingale; and in his essays on Dr Arnold and General Gordon, he looks at the public-school system and the whole structure of 19th-century liberal values.
Long description
Eminent Victorians marked an epoch in the art of biography; it also helped to crack the old myths of high Victorianism and to usher in a new spirit by which chauvinism, hypocrisy and the stiff upper lip were debunked. In it, Strachey cleverly exposes the self-seeking ambitions of Cardinal Manning and the manipulative, neurotic Florence Nightingale; and in his essays on Dr Arnold and General Gordon, his quarries are not only his subjects but also the public-school system and the whole structure of nineteenth-century liberal values.
Review
Strachey was the most talented of the Bloomsbury Group. The gentle irony with which he slides General Gordon, Cardinal Manning and Florence Nightingale from their pedestals is wrapped in prose so elegant and beautifully balanced that you feel that they are being complimented by his attentions. (Kirkus UK)