Definition
 A
biography is the record of a person's life, written by someone
else.
It
doesn't have to be the complete life, but might just cover part of
it.
EXAMPLES
- James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
- Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Bronte
- Paul Burrell's A Royal Duty [on Princess Diana]
USE
A
good biography will usually be based on lots of in-depth research.
The
evidence the writer use might come from letters, personal knowledge,
diaries, and interviews with people who knew the subject of the
biography.
The
biography usually claims to tell the truth about the subject.
This
might include negative as well as positive things about them.
The
difference between biography and fiction is that the character is a real person, and the events really happened.
Biographies
are interesting because the authors often tell us things about
the subject which you didn't know, or which had been kept secret.
You
feel that you get to know the subject very closely.
Sometimes
the biography is written for a particular reason, which might give
it a slant or a prejudice.
In
the case of really famous people, there might be several biographies
- each one telling a different story.
These
stories might even contradict each other, and the authors have
different opinions about what happened in the subject's life.
Most
of the time, a biography will be written using the third person
pronouns he or she
After the car crash, he never fully recovered
his confidence as a driver.
In her later films, she became even more successful
to her loyal fans.
The
events of a biography are normally related in chronological order.
That is, we read about the events in the same order that they happened. |
