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7. Lytton Strachey: ''Eminent Victorians'' – This work, first published in 1918, was one of the first biographies to ''not'' examine great men who did great things. Strachey's style helped replace a certain reverence that Victorians usually had for famous figures with a healthy skepticism of these figures' actions. Strachey examines his subjects' great deeds alongside their faults, all the while displaying great wit and undeniable readability.
8. Richard Ellmann: ''Oscar Wilde'' – With a subject like Oscar Wilde, a biographer would be hard-pressed to not render his create a work that didn't bring the reader directly into the world of its subject engrossing. This Ellmann's is the definitive biography of Wilde; it brilliantly juxtaposes Wilde’s eccentricities against straight-laced Victorian society.
9. Judith Flanders: ''Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England'' – This is a fun, quick read on the daily lives of Victorian upper and middle class people. Flanders largely ignores the working classes, which made up the majority of Victorian society, but the work is interesting nonetheless.
