John Aubrey: Brief Lives
03/31/2019
The Brief Lives by John Aubrey (1626-1697) are a collection of short biographies of his contemporaries, chosen on eclectic grounds which allowed for the inclusion of personal friends as well as prominent figures from science, philosophy, the arts, politics and high society.
The Brief Lives have long been appreciated for the intimate tone, and personal insights based on interviews with the subjects' acquaintances.
The Brief Lives at Amazon: United States | Canada | United Kingdom | France | Germany | Spain | Italy
Free online texts
Gutenberg: Brief Lives Vol. I | Vol. II, edited Andrew Clarke (1898). HTML, EPUB, Kindle and TXT formats.
Internet Archive: Brief Lives Vol . I (Incomplete | Vol. II. PDF, EPUB, TXT and Kindle formats.
Other Resources
Librivox: Brief Lives Vol. I | Vol. II - public domain audiobooks.
Wikipedia: John Aubrey - Brief Lives
The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes
Harold Bloom's Western Canon: The Brief Lives are included.