Eminent Victorians, Paperback/Lytton Strachey

Eminent Victorians is a groundbreaking work of biography that raised the genre to the level of high art. It replaced reverence with scepticism and Strachey's wit, iconoclasm, and narrative skill liberated the biographical enterprise. His portraits of Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold, and General Gordon changed perceptions of the Victorians for a generation.