# What The Nature of Biography and History means in Eminent Victorians

> Strachey's preface and method argue for a selective, ironic, and psychologically penetrating approach to biography, challenging the exhaustive, reverential Victorian hagiography and asserting the art of biography as a means to reveal deeper truths.

## Explanation

Strachey's preface and method argue for a selective, ironic, and psychologically penetrating approach to biography, challenging the exhaustive, reverential Victorian hagiography and asserting the art of biography as a means to reveal deeper truths.

The chapter opens with a reflection on the art of biography and the historian's role in interpreting the past, challenging conventional Victorian hagiography.

The chapter explicitly questions how to interpret Manning's life—whether he shaped his environment or was shaped by it—highlighting the complexities of historical and biographical analysis.

The chapter discusses the hagiographic biographies of saints produced by the Oxford Movement, including Froude's skeptical treatment of St. Neot, reflecting on the tension between historical truth and edifying fiction.

The chapter's dramatic portrayal of Manning and Newman's conflict, with vivid imagery like 'the meeting of the eagle and the dove,' reflects Strachey's biographical method of shaping historical narrative through character and incident.

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