{"product_id":"the-true-history-of-the-first-mrs-meredith-and-other-lesser-lives-9781681374451","title":"The True History of the First Mrs. Meredith and Other Lesser Lives","description":"\u003cb\u003eA classic of alternative biography and feminist writing, this empathetic and witty book gives due to a lesser figure of history, Mary Ellen Peacock Meredith, who was brilliant, unconventional, and at odds with the constraints of Victorian life.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Many people have described the Famous Writer presiding at his dinner table. . . . He is famous; everybody remembers his remarks. . . . We forget that there were other family members at the table--a quiet person, now muffled by time, shadowy, whose heart pounded with love, perhaps, or rage.\" So begins \u003ci\u003eThe True History of the First Mrs. Meredith and Other Lesser Lives\u003c\/i\u003e, an uncommon biography devoted to one of those \"lesser lives.\" As the author points out, \"A lesser life does not seem lesser to the person who leads one.\" Such sympathy and curiosity compelled Diane Johnson to research Mary Ellen Peacock Meredith (1821-1861), the daughter of the famous artist Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) and first wife of the equally famous poet George Meredith (1828-1909). Her life, treated perfunctorily and prudishly in biographies of Peacock or Meredith, is here exquisitely and unhurriedly given its due. What emerges is the portrait of a brilliant, well-educated woman, raised unconventionally by her father only to feel more forcefully the constraints of the Victorian era. First published in 1972, \u003ci\u003eLesser Lives \u003c\/i\u003ehas been a key text for feminists and biographers alike, a book that reimagined what biography might be, both in terms of subject and style. Biographies of other \"lesser\" lives have since followed in its footsteps, but few have the wit, elegance, and empathy of Johnson's seminal work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.cacorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-7056185\"\u003eDiane Johnson\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/23\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.61lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781681374451\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1681374455\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.cacorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.cacorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO007000\"\u003eLiterary Figures\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.cacorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.cacorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO006000\"\u003eHistorical\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.cacorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.cacorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO022000\"\u003eWomen\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDiane Johnson\u003c\/b\u003e is a novelist and critic. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eLulu in Marrakech\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eLe Divorce\u003c\/i\u003e, among other novels, and of a memoir, \u003ci\u003eFlyover Lives\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in Paris and San Francisco. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eVivian Gornick\u003c\/b\u003e is a Manhattan essayist, memoirist, and critic. She is the author of some twelve books written in all of these genres. Her newest book (fortuitously) is \u003ci\u003eUnfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"New York Review of Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43835517436043,"sku":"9781681374451","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0626\/5100\/7115\/files\/img_31605bd9-f49d-4246-a55d-a000fa9c3bc7.jpg?v=1755668594","url":"https:\/\/cacorrectionsbookstore.com\/products\/the-true-history-of-the-first-mrs-meredith-and-other-lesser-lives-9781681374451","provider":"CA Corrections Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}