No Unworthy Son: A Biography of James Anthony Froude

FAIN: FB-50189-04

Julia Markus
Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY 11549-1000)

James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) was one of the most representative, influential, and controversial men of the Victorian period. His major accomplishment was the masterpiece that should have insured his immortality, the brilliant four-volume life of Thomas Carlyle, which revolutionized the art of biography as we know it today. He was also a prolific historian, essayist, novelist, and editor. One of the last of the Victorian 'literary lions' as Bret Harte called him, his literary reputation, always controversial, declined as the twentieth century progressed. The aim of my biography is to bring this complex man to life once more, shadow side intact, and through a reevaluation of his life and writings to shed light on his importance to our culture, as well as to share the great pleasure of reading J. A. Froude's extensive oeuvre once more.