The critic on the hearth, biography as written by the wives of certain novelists.

The history of biography shows that biographies reflect the tastes and ideals of different ages. "Over no form of literary composition have the requirements of the reading public exercised so marked and immediate an influence. The development of biography is primarily the development of the taste for biography." The Greeks were not interested in personality as we understand it. They concentrated upon deeds and theories. Plutarch was concerned with the era in which his men lived; in his works the times are brought out and the individual stands in the background. Roman biographical literature reflects that civilisation's preoccupation with truth and morals rather than with the men themselves. Above all, biography then was not regarded as a separate branch of literature but was considered a means of historical and ethical instruction. [...