Description

James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) was an English historian. He grew dissatisfied with the views of the High Church party, and came under the influence of Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle's influence on him is seen in his admiration for strong rulers and strong government, which led him to write as though tyranny and brutality were excusable, and also in his independent treatment of character. He mainly supported himself by writing, contributing to Fraser's Magazine and the Westminster Review. The most notable characteristic of his style is its graceful simplicity; it is never affected or laboured; his sentences are short and easy, and follow one another naturally. He condemned a scientific treatment of history, believing that its purpose was simply to record human actions and that it should be written as a drama. Froude's History is, if long, a well-balanced and orderly narrative. He also wrote Short Studies on Great Subjects (1867), Caesar: A Sketch (1879), English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century (1895), The Reign of Henry the Eighth (1908), Froudacity: West Indian Fables, Essays on Literature and History and The Reign of Mary Tudor.