Biographies

Alexa · 07-07-2006, 05:25 AM

Do you believe biographies can guide our lives ? Can they teach us something valuable, something to make us stronger or wiser after reading them ?

On this thread, I propose you a saga of biographies. You have to read, understand, make a personal opinion and then sharing with us.

Below you have a link of short biographies from women's history:

http://www.gale.com/free_resources/whm/bio/

This doesn't mean men are exluded. It means, I didn't find a similar link yet.

As you can see, several names are listed and for each of them, a short biographie is written. It's like an article you all have the time to read. Each week, we can pick a name or we can take them in order. As you wish. The most important is to have a personality of the week to discuss.

If you don't want to offer something constructive about the biographie of the week, please don't post on this thread.

Alexa · 07-07-2006, 05:41 AM

The personality of the week is Abigail Adams, American first lady ( 1744-1818)

http://www.gale.com/free_resources/whm/bio/adams_a.htm

Here you have some interesting quotes which caught my attention:

Quote:

Like most girls of her time, Abigail received no formal education. Girls were taught reading and writing primarily so that they could read their Bible and write letters. They also learned basic arithmetic to help prepare them for their role as housewives, when they would be required to balance budgets and settle accounts. Although some Massachusetts towns did have primary schools for girls, called "dame schools," most families took responsibility for the education of their daughters at home.

Quote:

A woman born in Adams's time had few choices in deciding the direction her life would take. At birth, a female child's life path was very nearly mapped out from childhood to old age. She received little formal education — just enough to manage her duties as a housewife — but was encouraged to pursue what were considered more feminine pastimes, such as sewing, music, letter writing, and hostessing. If she found a husband, she was expected to serve as his helpmate, creating a harmonious and peaceful home that he could happily return to.

Quote:

Her letter reveals a prophetic sense of the struggles to come, as well as an insightful understanding of the danger of making one group subject to the will of another: "I long to hear that you have declared an independency — and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation" (Levin, p. 83).

Please read the entire article. And then read the quotes.

In 2006 women among us live the same experience. It's like the time has stopped in different corners of the planet.

Alexa · 07-28-2006, 10:29 PM

The personnality of the week is Jane Austen (1775-1817), one of the most important novelists of the 19th century.

http://www.gale.com/free_resources/whm/bio/austen_j.htm

"Pride and prejudice" is one of my favorite novels. I admired Elizabeth's character and hated Darcy's pride and arrogance. Well, at least till he changed his mind and married Elizabeth.

Quote:

In her intense concentration on the thoughts and feelings of a limited number of characters, Jane Austen creates as profound an understanding and as precise a vision of the potentialities of the human spirit as the art of fiction has ever achieved. Although her novels received favorable reviews, she was not celebrated as an author during her lifetime.

Anyone familiar with her other works ?