I have a theory about biographies: If you get interested in a person, you should try to find a good all-purpose overview of their life, something more or less chronological and unadorned with excessive analysis. Then you should move on to works like this one, which delve into the subjective at the expense of the objective. That sort of thing is perfectly all right if you already know your subject. This is the first bio of Ellen Terry that I bought, and it only confused me. Now that I know more about her, this is enlightening rather than befuddling. ( )