however, have more democratized tastes—popular topics include the lives of ordinary people, women, domestic servants or slaves, and the concept of a “life” might be extended to cover cities and even commodities (salt, for example, or cod). And while moralizing was a central feature of nineteenth-century biography, modern authors are decidedly reluctant to pass judgment on others. In broad terms, then, biography is not only produced by a particular age and culture but is also a reflection of it. A