Jowett

Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893) , pronounced to rhyme with 'know it', although never debunked as such by Lytton Strachey was nothing if not an Eminent Victorian: English scholar, classicist and theologian, and Master of Balliol College. First published in 1957, Geoffrey Faber's biography still holds its own. To quote from some of the original reviews:'Sir Geoffrey Faber is admirably equipped for his task ... In an urbane prose he reveals intimacy with the background, command of detail, psychological acumen and sympathy with his subject. I hope that this long book may prove as popular as his ''Oxford Apostles'' to which it forms a complement'. Raymond Mortimer, Sunday Times' ... this fine biography ... filled with some fascinating by-paths of Oxford history, but never losing sight of the strange, imperious bachelor who forms its theme ... Sir Geoffrey places all serious students of the Victorian age deeply in his debt'. Roger Fulford, Manchester Guardian