Brief Lives

work by Aubrey

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June 22, 2026

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John Aubrey's Brief Lives is a collection of biographical sketches of his contemporaries, written in a vivid and intimate style. Aubrey, an antiquarian and biographer, was educated at Oxford and studied law in London. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1663 due to his literary and scientific interests. His travels and personal life were marked by financial difficulties and lawsuits.

Aubrey's Lives, though not formal biographies, are characterized by their reliance on observation and gossip, offering picturesque and revealing details. These profiles provide a delightful glimpse into the author's own easygoing personality. The definitive presentation of his biographical manuscripts is Brief Lives (2 vol., 1898), edited by Andrew Clark.1

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John Aubrey
…Aubrey’s biographical manuscripts, however, is Brief Lives (2 vol., 1898; edited by Andrew Clark). Though not biographies in the strict sense of the word, Aubrey’s Lives, based on observation and gossip, are profiles graced by picturesque and revealing detail that have found favour with later generations. They also convey a…
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…Aubrey’s biographical manuscripts, however, is Brief Lives (2 vol., 1898; edited by Andrew Clark). Though not biographies in the strict sense of the word, Aubrey’s Lives, based on observation and gossip, are profiles graced by picturesque and revealing detail that have found favour with later generations. They also convey a…
Read More

English literature
Chroniclers
…modern times under the title Brief Lives. After 1688, secret histories of the reigns of Charles II and James II were popular, of which the outstanding instance, gossipy but often reliable, is the Memoirs of the Count Grammont, compiled in French by Anthony Hamilton and first translated into English in…
Read More
…modern times under the title Brief Lives. After 1688, secret histories of the reigns of Charles II and James II were popular, of which the outstanding instance, gossipy but often reliable, is the Memoirs of the Count Grammont, compiled in French by Anthony Hamilton and first translated into English in…
Read More