Eminent Victorians: The Biographies of Cardinal Manning, General Gordon, Florence Nightingale and Thomas Arnold, by Lytton Strachey

"Eminent Victorians" is a classic by Lytton Strachey consisting of biographies of four leading figures from the Victorian era. Its fame rests on the irreverence and wit Strachey brought to bear on three men and a woman who had till then been regarded as heroes and heroine. They were: Cardinal Henry Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold, and General Charles Gordon. "Eminent Victorians" made Strachey's name and placed him firmly in the top rank of biographers, where he remains. Lytton Strachey first started "Eminent Victorians" under the title "Victorian Silhouettes," intending to cover the biographies of twelve notable Victorian personalities. Becoming convinced that the Victorian worthies were hypocrites who had bequeathed to his generation the "profoundly evil" system "by which it is sought to settle international disputes by force", Strachey decided to cover only four characters. "Eminent Victorians" was first published in 1818, with almost uniformly enthusiastic reviews. Each of the lives in "Eminent Victorians" are very different, although there are common threads.