Brief Lives (1669-1697) is a collection of short biographical sketches
on famous British figures by author, antiquarian, and archaeologist John
Aubrey. The work is significant for its unique style, a blend of
facts--names, dates, family, important works--and personal anecdotes for
which Aubrey combined his skills for research and conversation to
compile. Unpublished during his lifetime, the text was pieced together
from extensive handwritten manuscripts by numerous editors and scholars,
and over the centuries has become a beloved cultural artifact of
early-modern Britain. A fascinating figure and gifted researcher in his
own right, John Aubrey sought to capture the significance of his era and
the people whose contributions to art, politics, science, and philosophy
were not only changing Britain, but the world, forever. As a historical
record, his Brief Lives provides valuable information on such figures
as poet John Milton, playwright William Shakespeare, philosopher Thomas
Hobbes, and chemist Robert Boyle. But as a work of art, the text
humanizes them, reminding its readers that these were people whose
desires, imperfections, and day-to-day lives were not unlike our own. We
turn to his works to discover that Sir Walter Raleigh was a "poor"
scholar "immerst...in fabrication of his owne fortunes," or to read that
Shakespeare, the son of a butcher who worked for his father as a youth,
was known to "make a speech" while slaughtering a calf. At times
straightforwardly factual, at others filled with gossip, Brief Lives
is a document of its time that attempts to record a living history of
knowledge and influence. Whether it succeeds is beside the point--that
it speaks to us centuries on is the heart of the matter, the reason it
must be read. A well-known man in his lifetime, Aubrey moved between
cultural and political circles with ease, compiling the sources that
would later become Brief Lives. Although a tireless writer and
scholar, he published little during his life. His work, including Brief
Lives, is thus the product of centuries of diligent research and
editing from numerous scholars who understood, as the reader of this
volume surely will, that Aubrey's work deserved to reach the public.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript,
this edition of John Aubrey's Brief Lives is a classic of British
literature and biography reimagined for modern readers.
