AUBREY'S BRIEF LIVES

That provocative figure, John Aubrey, is given a satisfactory biography- of his 17th century career and the background which was its setting- as an introduction to this selection of 134 ""lives"" from the 426 entries in the original mss. (John Collier, in 1931, was more demanding for his The Scandal and Credu of John Aubrey excluded all but 50 and his introduction and capsule biography ran over with the qualities that make this little known figure forever alive.) Here Aubrey is given, through new information available, full credit for his many interests, accomplishments, ideas and contributions, and is set in the frame of his time with careful detail and informed knowledge, with all his vicissitudes and unfinished works researched- and not found wanting. The Lives are full of life, are easily recognized for their importance to subsequent writers and offer innocently bright light on Aubrey's contemporaries and predecessors. Edmund Wilson's foreword is an assuring send off. A touchstone for the serious- as well as the curious reader.