With deft, picturesque prose, Aubrey presents biographical sketches for an intriguing and colorful parade of statesmen, poets, philosophers, and scientists, including Walter Raleigh, Francis Bacon, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, and Rene Descartes, as well as a host of lesser known but equally fascinating figures. This anecdotal, gossipy collection brings to life the tumultuous world of Elizabethan and Stuart England and its revolutions in politics, science and morality. At the same time, Aubrey revels in the sheer variety of human nature and in the detailed, intimate, and sometimes scandalous aspects of his subjects' lives. An antiquarian, Aubrey began his collection as source material for his friend Anthony Wood's histories of Oxford University. In this new edition, more faithful to the original text than previous versions, Brief Lives emerges as a revolution in the art of English biography, a mixture of entertainment and erudition, and a lively portrait of an age.

作者簡介

約翰·奧布裏（John Aubrey，1626－1697），英國古文物研究者，博物學傢，著有《不列顛曆史遺跡》、《名人小傳》等作品。

譯者簡介

王憲生，鄭州大學外語學院教授，河南省翻譯協會副會長，齣版社科、文學類翻譯作品二百餘萬字，另齣有翻譯、西方文化類教材、著述等一百餘萬字