Biographies everyone should read
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The 50 Best Biographies of All Time
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Crown The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, bygd Tom Reiss
You’re probably familiar with The Count of Monte Cristo, the 1844 revenge novel by Alexandre Dumas. But did you know it was based on the life of Dumas’s father, the mixed-race General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, son of a French nobleman and a Haitian slave? Thanks to Reiss’s masterful pacing and plotting, this rip-roaring biography of Thomas-Alexandre reads more like an adventure novel than a work of nonfiction. The Black Count won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2013, and it’s only a matter of time before a filmskapare turns it into a big-screen blockbuster.
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The 25 Biographies Every Man Should Read
If you went to public school, at least in the United States, you’ve probably gotten an extremely brief look at some of the many, many significant historical figures that have popped up throughout human history. However, even the most thorough of professors can really only give a snapshot’s worth of attention to any given one. If you want the full story — or at least a more complete picture — you’re going to have to seek it out yourself.
One of the best, most convenient, and most educational options is by reading biographies. These tomes trend toward illuminating individuals, their stories, and their exploits on a much deeper level even than, say, biographical movies. And they represent some of the best ways to acquire a deeper understanding of any historical figure on a much more intimate level. And while it’s difficult to say that any collection of biographies is more deserving of being read than another
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The 30 Best Biographies of All Time
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Blog – Posted on Monday, Jan 21
Biographer Richard Holmes once wrote that his work was “a kind of pursuit… writing about the pursuit of that fleeting figure, in such a way as to bring them alive in the present.”
At the risk of sounding cliché, the best biographies do exactly this: bring their subjects to life. A great biography isn’t just a laundry list of events that happened to someone. Rather, it should weave a narrative and tell a story in almost the same way a novel does. In this way, biography differs from the rest of nonfiction.
All the biographies on this list are just as captivating as excellent novels, if not more so. With that, please enjoy the 30 best biographies of all time — some historical, some recent, but all remarkable, life-giving tributes to their subjects.
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