{"product_id":"9781681370439","title":"John Aubrey, My Own Life","description":"Born on the brink of the modern world, John Aubrey was witness to the  great intellectual and political upheavals of the seventeenth century.  He knew everyone of note in England—writers, philosophers,  mathematicians, doctors, astrologers, lawyers, statesmen—and wrote about  them all, leaving behind a great gift to posterity: a compilation of  biographical information titled \u003ci\u003eBrief Lives\u003c\/i\u003e, which in a strikingly modest and radical way invented the art of biography.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAubrey  was born in Wiltshire, England, in 1626. The reign of Queen Elizabeth  and, earlier, the dissolution of the monasteries were not too far  distant in memory during his boyhood. He lived through England’s Civil  War, the execution of Charles I, the brief rule of Oliver Cromwell and  his son, and the restoration of Charles II. Experiencing these  constitutional crises and regime changes, Aubrey was impassioned by the  preservation of traces of Ancient Britain, of English monuments, manor  houses, monasteries, abbeys, and churches. He was a natural philosopher,  an antiquary, a book collector, and a chronicler of the world around  him and of the lives of his friends, both men and women. His method of  writing was characteristic of his manner: modest, self-deprecating,  witty, and concerned above all with the collection of facts that would  otherwise be lost to time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eJohn Aubrey, My Own Life\u003c\/i\u003e is  an extraordinary book about the first modern biographer, which  reimagines what biography can be. This intimate diary of Aubrey’s days  is composed of his own words, collected, collated, and enlarged upon by  Ruth Scurr in an act of meticulous scholarship and daring imagination.  Scurr’s biography honors and echoes Aubrey’s own innovations in the art  of biography. Rather than subject his life to a conventional narrative,  Scurr has collected the evidence—the remnants of a life from  manuscripts, letters, and books—and arranged it chronologically,  modernizing words and spellings, and adding explanations when necessary,  with sources provided in the extensive endnotes. Here are Aubrey’s  intricate drawings of Stonehenge and the ancient Avebury stones; Aubrey  on Charles I’s execution (“On this day, the King was executed. It was  bitter cold, so he wore two heavy shirts, lest he should shiver and seem  afraid”); and Aubrey on antiquity (“Matters of antiquity are like the  light after sunset—clear at first—but by and by \u003ci\u003ecrepusculum\u003c\/i\u003e—the  twilight—comes—then total darkness”). From the darkness, Scurr has  wrested a vibrant, intimate account of the life of an ingenious man.","brand":"New York Review Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47139812999408,"sku":"9781681370439","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781681370439_p0.jpg?v=1763692572","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781681370439","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}