The Works of Max Beerbohm · Concept
Historical Revisionism and Style
Beerbohm deliberately challenges established historical judgments (e.g., Thackeray's condemnation of George IV), using elegant, ironic prose to rehabilitate figures and argue that style and aesthetic merit should outweigh conventional moral or factual assessments.
Beerbohm deliberately challenges established historical judgments (e.g., Thackeray's condemnation of George IV), using elegant, ironic prose to rehabilitate figures and argue that style and aesthetic merit should outweigh conventional moral or factual assessments.
The chapter explicitly revises Thackeray's moralistic history, arguing that style and aesthetic unity should inform our judgment of historical figures.
The narrator weighs traditional accounts against Mr. Pryse Gordon's memoir, ultimately favoring tradition as a guide to truth, while using a discovered print and newspaper archives to reconstruct the real story.