Riassunto
Riassunto di La mia vita di autore
A chi è rivolto
Readers who enjoy Victorian voices, literary gossip, schoolboy pranks, travel sketches and old poems, and anyone curious how a stammering barrister became a poet admired from Surrey to Philadelphia.
Che cos’è questo libro
My Life as an Author is the memoir of Martin Farquhar Tupper, written when he is seventy-six. Tupper was a Victorian poet, essayist and barrister, best known for Proverbial Philosophy, a book of short moral essays in rhythmic prose that found eager readers in Britain and America. He sets down his career himself so that nobody else will do it badly after he is gone.
He promises to keep private and family matters mostly out of the book and to follow his work as a writer from the schoolroom to old age. So you travel with him through his schools, his years at Oxford, his battle with a stammer, his many books, his journeys, his public readings, his friendships and his hobbies. Poems of his own sit in the middle of the chapters, as samples of what he wrote and of the moments that prompted it.
What you get is a lively, vain, kind and often funny self-portrait of a man who believes that Providence guides every small event of life. Gladstone, Thackeray, Longfellow, Kingsley and Jenny Lind all cross his path, and so do a mysterious key, a rising table and bees living inside the walls of his house. Let us begin with why he decides to write about himself at all.
In questo riassunto
- 1He writes a life of books, not secretsFree
- 2A doctor's son meets a king and a tyrant
- 3Rhymes and journals of a young traveller
- 4Oxford friends, prizes and pranks
- 5A stammer closes church and law
- 6Proverbial Philosophy and its fortunes
- 7A shelf of other books and plays
- 8Across the Atlantic and onto the platform
- 9Curiosities, losses and a hopeful faith
Punto chiave 1 di 9
He writes a life of books, not secrets
Tupper says plainly that he has refused many requests to write an autobiography. When one friend pressed him, he sent back a sonnet saying that his life is in his books and that the record there is a truthful photograph. He had even burned a heap of old diaries, fearing they would be printed after his death. He adds a firm request that none of his private letters be published unless they are purely literary.
His reasons are worth hearing. He thinks that autobiography tempts a man to excuse his failures and puff up his successes. He also thinks that nobody except God can weigh how heredity and circumstance shape a person, since each of us is a mixture of a thousand generations. So he leaves his inner spiritual story to the Recording Angel and offers only the outward story of a writing life.
He then borrows courage from Benjamin Franklin, who admits that old men like to talk about themselves and that a little vanity does no harm.
Tupper promises to show his second best and even his worse sides where he can see them. This is his promise.
The plan he adopts is simple. He will trace his writing from his earliest years to old age, with samples from his books. That is why so many poems appear in the middle of his chapters.
He also describes himself as changeable. He cannot say whether he is Whig or Tory, high church or low, fond of company or of solitude. His motto comes from the Roman playwright Terence, who held that nothing human is foreign to him. He dislikes priestcraft of every kind and blames that on ancestors who were martyrs before Luther. The tone is set: opinionated, warm and quick to tell you what he thinks.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Questions about La mia vita di autore
What is My Life as an Author about?
It is Martin Tupper's memoir of his literary career, from school days and Oxford to his books, travels, public readings and friendships. He keeps private family matters mostly out, though he does record the deaths of his son and wife, and he sets many of his poems among the stories.
Who was Martin Farquhar Tupper?
Tupper was a Victorian poet, essayist and barrister who lived at Albury in Surrey. He overcame a long stammer, wrote Proverbial Philosophy and tales such as The Crock of Gold, and toured America and Britain reading his own works.
What is Proverbial Philosophy?
It is Tupper's collection of short essays on subjects such as marriage, friendship and education, written in the manner of Solomon's Proverbs. The memoir tells how it began in 1828 and how it travelled across the Atlantic.
When was My Life as an Author written, and is it true?
Tupper wrote it in his seventy-sixth year, around 1886, as a first-person account of his own career. It is autobiography, so it shows his memories, opinions and pride, along with letters and poems he quotes.
What is the main message of the book?
Tupper believes that Providence guides every small event of life, including setbacks like his stammer. He urges hope, kindness, moderation and faith, and he treats a writer's work as a way of serving others.