"By choosing to write in a typically modern kind, the imaginative biography, he has acknowledged the stimulus of its inaugurator, Lytton Strachey. But Strachey may have sometimes sacrificed truth to literary effect; in contrast, David Cecil is exact and scrupulous. And if his predecessor's tone tended to be one of mockery, his own astringency is mitigated with humour, and his irony with charity. The compassionate spirit of his writing is in his case undoubtedly inspired by his lifelong attachment to the Christian faith."
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Historians from EnglandLiterary criticsUniversity of Oxford facultyBiographers from EnglandUniversity of Oxford alumni
Original Language: English
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Sources
William Wallace Robson, 'Preface' to Essays & Poems Presented to Lord David Cecil (1970), pp. vii-viii
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_David_Cecil
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Lord David Cecil
Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil CH (9 April 1902 – 1 January 1986) was a British biographer, historian, and scholar. He held the style of "Lord" by courtesy, as a younger son of a marquess.
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