Lytton strachey concept of biography for kids

A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of Eminent Victorians , he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit. Strachey was born on 1 March at Stowey House, Clapham Common , London, the fifth son and 11th child of Lieutenant General Sir Richard Strachey , an officer in the British colonial armed forces, and his second wife, the former Jane Grant , who became a leading supporter of the women's suffrage movement.

He was named Giles Lytton after an early 16th-century Gyles Strachey and the first Earl of Lytton , who had been a friend of Richard Strachey's when he was Viceroy of India in the late s.

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The Earl of Lytton was also Lytton Strachey's godfather. She thought that Lytton had the potential to become a great artist so she decided that he would receive the best education possible to be "enlightened. Strachey was educated at a series of schools, beginning at Parkstone , Dorset. This was a small school with a wide range of after-class activities, where Strachey's acting skills exceeded those of other pupils; he was particularly convincing when portraying female parts.

He told his mother how much he liked dressing as a woman in real life to confuse and entertain others. Lady Strachey decided in that her son should start his more serious education and sent him to Abbotsholme School in Rocester , Derbyshire, where pupils were required to do manual work every day. Strachey, who always had a fragile physique, objected to this requirement and after a few months, he was transferred to Leamington College , where he became a victim of savage bullying.

In the s one of the four 'houses' at the school was named after him. His health also seems to have improved during the three years he spent at Leamington, although various illnesses continued to plague him. When Strachey turned 17 in , Lady Strachey decided that he was ready to leave school and go to university, but because she thought he was too young for Oxford she decided that he should first attend a smaller institution, the University of Liverpool.

There Strachey befriended the professor of modern literature, Walter Raleigh , who, besides being his favourite teacher, also became the most influential figure in his life before he went up to Cambridge. In Strachey took the Christ Church scholarship examination, wanting to get into Balliol College, Oxford , but the examiners determined that Strachey's academic achievements were not remarkable and were struck by his "shyness and nervousness.

He did not however take leave of Trinity but remained until October to work on a thesis that he hoped would gain him a fellowship.