The eighteenth-century British historian provides an account of his childhood, Start reading Memoirs of My Life (English Library) on your Kindle in under a.
Table of contents
- Memoirs of My Life
- Catalog Record: Memoirs of my life by John Charles Fremont | Hathi Trust Digital Library
- Navigation
Heroine meets hero and hates him. Is charmed by a cad. A family crisis — caused by the cad — is resolved by the hero. The heroine sees him for what he really is and realises after visiting his enormous house that she loves him. The plot has been endlessly borrowed, but few authors have written anything as witty or profound as Pride and Prejudice. Buy Pride and Prejudice from the Telegraph Bookshop. Swift's scathing satire shows humans at their worst: Our capacity for self-delusion — personified by the absurdly pompous Gulliver — makes this darkest of novels very funny.
Buy Gulliver's Travels from the Telegraph Bookshop. Cruelty, hypocrisy, dashed hopes: Jane Eyre faces them all, yet her individuality triumphs. Her relationship with Rochester has such emotional power that it's hard to believe these characters never lived. Tolstoy's masterpiece is so enormous even the author said it couldn't be described as a novel. But the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha — and the tragic and unexpected way their lives intersect — grip you for all 1, pages.
Buy War and Peace from the Telegraph Bookshop. David's journey to adulthood is filled with difficult choices — and a huge cast of characters, from the treacherous Steerforth to the comical Mr Micawber. Buy David Copperfield from the Telegraph Bookshop. And to tell the truth, she was not. Buy Vanity Fair from the Telegraph Bookshop. Flaubert's finely crafted novel tells the story of Emma, a bored provincial wife who comforts herself with shopping and affairs.
It doesn't end well. Buy Madame Bovary from the Telegraph Bookshop. Dorothea wastes her youth on a creepy, elderly scholar. Lydgate marries the beautiful but self-absorbed Rosamund.
George Eliot's characters make terrible mistakes, but we never lose empathy with them. Buy Middlemarch from the Telegraph Bookshop. Shakespeare's sonnets contain some of poetry's most iconic lines — and a mysterious insight into his personal life. Dante Alighieri's epic tale of one man's journey into the afterlife is considered Italy's finest literary export. Buy Divine Comedy from the Telegraph Bookshop. These humorous tales about fictional pilgrims made an important contribution to English literature at a time when court poetry was written in either Anglo-Norman or Latin.
This posthumously published work is both an autobiographical journey and a fragment of history from the revolutionary and post-revolutionary years.
Littered with sensuous descriptions of nature's beauty, Keats's odes also pose profound philosophical questions. Eliot's vision of dystopia became a literary landmark, and introduced new techniques to the modern poet. He remains one of the defining figures of 20th-century poetry. Buy Paradise Lost from the Telegraph Bookshop. Blake's short poems are simple in rhythm and rhyme, but sophisticated in meaning. Written during a time of political turmoil, they embody his radical sympathies and anti-dualist ideas.
Considered a driving force in the revival of Irish literature, Yeats fruitfully engages the topics of youth, love, nature, art and war. Although Hughes was a colossal presence among the English literary landscape — his work often draws upon the forbidding Yorkshire countryside of his youth — his personal life had a tendency to overshadow his talent. Buy Collected Poems from the Telegraph Bookshop. James's mastery of psychology has never been more elegantly expressed nor more gripping than in his tale of Isabel Archer, a young American in search of her destiny, and Gilbert Osmond, the ultimate cold fish and one of literature's most repellent villains.
A novel whose every sentence can be a struggle to finish may sound forbidding, but this masterpiece of modernity, taking us into every nook and cranny of the narrator's fascinating mind, is worth all the effort. Buy A la recherche du temps perdu from the Telegraph Bookshop. Banned in Britain and America for its depiction of female masturbation, Joyce's Ulysses takes its scatological stand at the pinnacle of modernist literature. Lyrical and witty, its stream-of-consciousness narration deters many, but makes enraptured enthusiasts of others.
Buy Ulysses from the Telegraph Bookshop. A sparse, masculine, world-weary meditation on death, ideology and the savagery of war in general, and the Spanish civil war in particular. A poignant, ironic study of the disintegration of aristocratic values in the face of blank bureaucracy and Second World War butchery, Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender are Waugh's crowning achievements. Buy Sword of Honour trilogy from the Telegraph Bookshop. We first meet Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom in Rabbit, Run, as a boorish, unhappy former basketball jock who runs from and to his pregnant wife.
The novels that follow cover 30 years and make up the great study of American manhood. Buy Rabbit series from the Telegraph Bookshop. Morrison brought to life a version of the slave narrative that has become a classic.
- Eine Ahnung von Vollkommenheit: Roman (German Edition).
- See a Problem?.
- Hidden Agenda.
- Navigation menu!
- BIBLIOGRAPHY.
- America and Europe after 9/11 and Iraq: The Great Divide (Praeger Security International).
Her tour de force of guilt, abandonment and revenge plays out against the background of pre-emancipation American life. Buy Beloved from the Telegraph Bookshop. Roth's brilliant, angry dissection of race, disgrace and hypocrisy in Clinton-Lewinsky era America brings to a close his grand and meticulous American trilogy American Pastoral, I Married a Communist.
Cornish estate owner Maximilian de Winter's second wife — also the nameless narrator — is haunted by the housekeeper's oppressive worship of her predecessor, Rebecca.
Memoirs of My Life
A masterful tale of suspense. Buy Rebecca from the Telegraph Bookshop. Malory's yarn explores the possibility that chivalry is best revealed by a knight's loyalty to his fellow knights, and not simply his devotion to a woman. Paris in the 18th century: Their roguish machinations lead to their climactic undoing. An invented autobiographical account of Claudius, the fourth emperor of ancient Rome. Graves draws upon the historical texts of Tacitus and Suetonius to write Claudius's story after claiming a visitation from the ancient ruler in his dreams. Buy I, Claudius from the Telegraph Bookshop.
Renault transports readers to Ancient Greece in a historical trilogy that presents the life and legacy of Alexander the Great in a humanising fictional portrait. Buy Alexander Trilogy from the Telegraph Bookshop. The novel follows Aubrey's convincing and complex friendship with Maturin, the ship's surgeon, as they fight enemies and storms. Buy Master and Commander from the Telegraph Bookshop. Scarlett O'Hara manipulates her way through the American civil war. This selfish, but gutsy heroine idealises the unattainable Ashley before realising her love for her third husband, Rhett, who dismisses her with, 'My dear, I don't give a damn.
Yuri Zhivago loves two women, his wife, Tonya, and the captivating Lara. Pasternak juxtaposes romance with the stark brutality of the Russian civil war in this extraordinary historical epic. Buy Dr Zhivago from the Telegraph Bookshop. Disgraced by an illegitimate child, Tess is tainted with shame and guilt, which destroys her marriage to Angel Clare. She emerges as a tragic heroine, incapable of escaping the hypocrisy of Victorian society.
A collection of novels inspired by the Plantagenet dynasty. Jean Plaidy is one of the many noms de plume of Eleanor Alice Burford Hibbert, the celebrated historical fiction writer, who died in Four children sail to Wildcat Island, where they encounter a rival camping party then join forces to hunt treasure. Robinson Crusoe meets The Famous Five in a tale of sailing and ginger beer.
Buy Swallows and Amazons from the Telegraph Bookshop. The novel uses Christian iconography in Aslan's dramatic sacrifice and resurrection. Edmund's transition from self-interested schoolboy to heroic young man is also resonantly spiritual. Frodo and friends journey to Mordor to destroy the ring, making the young Hobbit one of the greatest fictional heroes of all time. More than million copies have been sold of the trilogy that brought fantasy to a mainstream literary audience.
Will is a boy from Oxford. Lyra is a girl from Oxford in a parallel world. Together they have an epic adventure spanning parallel universes. The trilogy has inspired criticism for being heretical — Pullman himself declared the books were about 'killing God'. Babar brings clothes and cars and Madame from Paris to his African kingdom. With his family and the wise Cornelius by his side, Babar protects his land from the Rhino King Rataxes.
The big, beautiful books are enriched by Brunhoff's wonderful illustrations. Buy Babar from the Telegraph Bookshop. Milne created a life philosophy with the trials, triumphs and tiddley-poms of the honey-loving, always kind-hearted Pooh. Buy Winnie-the-Pooh from the Telegraph Bookshop. The boy wizard's dealings with the forces of adolescence and evil have sold more than million books in 65 languages. The Harry Potter phenomenon has its detractors, but the success of special 'grown-up' covers, allowing commuters to read Rowling without shame, tells its own tale. Buy Harry Potter from the Telegraph Bookshop.
Lonely and miserable trying to clean his hole, Mole ventures outside. He meets Ratty, Toad and Badger, and embarks on a new life defending Toad Hall from the weasels, protecting Toad from himself and messing about in boats. The piratical coming of age of Jim Hawkins, who discovers a map of Treasure Island among an old sea captain's possessions — and then follows it.
Parrots, 'pieces of eight' and the lovable, but morally ambiguous Long John Silver. Buy Treasure Island from the Telegraph Bookshop. The great genius of Shelley's novel has often been overwhelmed by images of schlocky bolt-necked 'Frankensteins'. Buy Frankenstein from the Telegraph Bookshop. Among the deep-sea volcanoes, shoals of swirling fish, giant squid and sharks, Captain Nemo steers the Nautilus. Nemo is the renegade scientist par excellence, a man madly inventive in his quest for revenge. A seminal work of dystopian fiction, Wells's tale of the voyages of the Time Traveller in the distant future AD, is also a cracking adventure story.
So persuasive and chilling was the world summoned up here that 'Orwellian' has entered the language as shorthand for government control. Chilling, wry and romantic, it is above all a passionate cry for freedom. Buy from the Telegraph Bookshop. Shifty Soviets and the clipped vernacular make this a Fifties horror story. But as humans cope with disasters mass blinding by meteor shower; ruthless walking, flesh-eating plants the tale becomes taut, terrifying, and far from ridiculous. Once you've finished this, 14 novels and countless more short stories await.
Buy Foundation from the Telegraph Bookshop. The first in Clarke's quartet was written as a novel and, in collaboration with Stanley Kubrick, as a film script. A Space Odyssey from the Telegraph Bookshop. Dick's masterpiece questions what it is that distinguishes us as human, as we follow Rick Deckard on his mission to 'retire' recalcitrant androids. Spawned Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. A violent slab of cyberpunk sci-fi, in which techie activities artificial intelligence, hacking, virtual reality are married with a grimy, anarchic, slangy sensibility, and a cast of hustlers, hackers and junkies trying to make sense of a world ruled by corporations.
Buy Neuromancer from the Telegraph Bookshop. Tom Ripley is one of 20th-century literature's most disturbingly fascinating characters: A tale of greed and deceit that's also the archetypal work of 20th-century detective fiction: It's one of literature's most wonderful ironies that Conan Doyle himself became a spiritualist so soon after creating the most famously rational character in all literature.
His oeuvre may be small, but with the help of long-time protagonist PI Philip Marlowe — who appears here for the first time — Chandler helped define the genres of detective fiction and, later, film noir. Hannibal Lecter's second literary appearance sees him called upon by old FBI chum and near-victim Will Graham, to help solve the case of the serially morbid 'Tooth Fairy'. Buy Red Dragon from the Telegraph Bookshop. From Istanbul to London, Hercule Poirot's little grey cells rattle away to improbable effect as he untangles the mystery of the life and violent death of a sinister passenger.
The elder Gibbon indulged his son from an early age, supporting his studies, his travel, his book collecting.
Catalog Record: Memoirs of my life by John Charles Fremont | Hathi Trust Digital Library
Gibbon declined all the usual occupations law, etc. Actually, I think there is something about Proust having served very briefly in the military? I think Gibbon acknowledged that these exercises did inform his understanding of Roman warfare, but the knowledge could have been gained in many fewer years. The thing that makes you wonder is that Gibbon describes his father dying of worry over expenditures that far outstripped his resources. Apparently no remorse over his own spending tens of thousands of familiy pounds on an idle life over the years.
I suppose I should research whether he had some money from his mother, but perversely I prefer to have a quibble. As much as Gibbon declares he was quite content to never marry, you have to wonder if he ever forgave his father for barring his marriage to a very bright young Swiss woman who he met when he was sent to Lausanne to reverse his dangerous self-conversion to Catholicism.
This toying with Catholicism in his youth makes his later arguments about the role of the churches in the Decline more interesting. But, what an idle life to envy! He ends with a library of over 6, volumes, which you watch him build over his lifetime. He has indulged his intellectual interests wherever they led him. He has met Voltaire, and dined with many remarkable people. Less to envy, perhaps: A delight, perhaps most of all for the frequent grins as he skewers another target. Dec 29, Nicholas Whyte rated it it was amazing.
Edward Gibbon's short and entertaining autobiography, telling the story of his life and of how he wrote the Decline and Fall. The two chapters in which Gibbon describes the completion, publication and reception of the Decline and Fall ought to be essential reading for anyone planning a writing career. In particular, his reflections on completing the twenty-year project are poignant: After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias.
I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious. Gibbon comes across as, of course, tremendously intelligent, but also rather modest with it: He expresses the vague hope, in , that people will still read his work in a hundred years' time.
I was reading this aloud to Anne as she drove us home from England yesterday, and I found I had got something in my eye, also affecting my throat, as I got to the end: This day may possibly be my last: The warm desires, the long expectations of youth, are founded on the ignorance of themselves and of the world: Oct 13, J. Dionysius Nicolello added it. Though I planned to spend the day and evening reading this nice little navy blue Oxford hardcover without worrying about note taking or unleashing a distant maze of tabs concerning notes on notes on notes on notes, I could not help but transcribe five particular quotations into my Moroccan Book of Epigraphs.
May 04, Larry rated it liked it. This is a fine autobiography, and probably of some interest if you're reading Decline and Fall, since it sheds some interesting light on Gibbon's intellectual development and unique life story and how he came to write his masterpiece. Jan 17, Richard Epstein rated it really liked it. Of course that may help explain why we are not the World's Greatest Historians. Style is the image of character. Sep 25, Steve Browne rated it liked it. Autobiography of a nerdy scholastic and lifelong bachelor.
I wish it had more details of everyday life in the 18th Century.
Feb 11, John-Paul rated it liked it. The last third or so of this book was just wonderful. The first two thirds are taken up with family history and correcting the record about Gibbon's dalliance with Roman Catholicism. I found myself reading a few pages and then finding other things to do. But then he gets to his Roman history, backbenching in Parliament, and retirement to Lausanne, and the prose which had been a delight throughout finally had a reason for being. This is not a book of great wisdom or even deep insight into ones The last third or so of this book was just wonderful.
This is not a book of great wisdom or even deep insight into oneself or history or whatever. It puts Gibbon squarely into his own time, from his family's associations with Walpole to his own exchanges with Burke, Hume, and other Significant Men. Gibbon has some real snark for his critics and real praise for his friends, and when he concludes spoiler! Jan 28, Dayla rated it it was amazing Shelves: As Gibbon related, "a sincere and simple narrative of my own life may amuse some of my leisure hours, but it will subject me, and perhaps with justice, to the imputation of vanity.
It becomes clear what the world would be like if FDR had not provided Social Security, and how Gibbon was not able to beget children d As Gibbon related, "a sincere and simple narrative of my own life may amuse some of my leisure hours, but it will subject me, and perhaps with justice, to the imputation of vanity. It becomes clear what the world would be like if FDR had not provided Social Security, and how Gibbon was not able to beget children due to his constant scrimping and saving. I did love it that Gibbon chose to live in France for a good amount of time, mainly that time when his epic history of Rome, which also included a strong factual account of Christianity, which was not pleasing to most Englishmen.
Jun 03, Stephen rated it it was amazing. Remarkable person who was almost entirely self educated. Great insights into how to educate yourself in the Roman and Greek classics and how intellectuals in the neoclassical era interacted and developed. Jul 19, John Patrick added it.
This guy is a genius for sure. Really enjoyed reading this. Dec 11, Peter rated it really liked it.
Read this in college in a seminar on the history of how history has been studied and historiography. Of all the classes I took in college, this was one of the best. I still have a copy. Dec 12, Howard rated it liked it. Entertaining, very quotable, probably irrelevant to anyone who has not read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Sam Fickling rated it really liked it Feb 19, Pat rated it it was amazing Jul 04, Gabriel Jones rated it liked it Dec 27, Mark rated it really liked it Jan 26, Richard Blake rated it it was amazing May 16, Tien rated it really liked it Jul 24, Wendy rated it it was amazing May 26, Billy rated it it was amazing Aug 08, Amanda Banks rated it liked it Jun 28, Mac rated it really liked it Jun 05, Bill rated it really liked it Feb 11, V rated it really liked it Aug 17, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between and The Decline and Fall is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open criticism of organised religion. Gibbon returned to England in June His father died in , and after tending to the estate, which was by no means in good condition, there remained quite enough for Gibbon to settle fashionably in London at 7 Bentinck Street, independent of financial concerns.
By February , he was writing in earnest, but not without the occasional self-imposed distraction. He took to London society quite easily, joined the better social clubs, including Dr.
Navigation
Johnson's Literary Club, and looked in from time to time on his friend Holroyd in Sussex. He succeeded Oliver Goldsmith at the Royal Academy as 'professor in ancient history' honorary but prestigious. In late , he was initiated a freemason of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. And, perhaps least productively in that same year, he was returned to the House of Commons for Liskeard, Cornwall through the intervention of his relative and patron, Edward Eliot. He became the archetypal back-bencher, benignly "mute" and "indifferent," his support of the Whig ministry invariably automatic.
Gibbon's indolence in that position, perhaps fully intentional, subtracted little from the progress of his writing. After several rewrites, with Gibbon "often tempted to throw away the labours of seven years," the first volume of what would become his life's major achievement, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published on 17 February Through , the reading public eagerly consumed three editions for which Gibbon was rewarded handsomely: Biographer Leslie Stephen wrote that thereafter, "His fame was as rapid as it has been lasting.
By early , he was "straining for the goal" and with great relief the project was finished in June. It was on the day, or rather the night, of 27 June , between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame.