author
Robert Bisset
1759–1805
A Scottish man of letters whose books ranged from political history to lively literary biography, he is best remembered for writing about Edmund Burke and the writers behind The Spectator. His career moved between teaching, law, and journalism before settling into full-time authorship in late 18th-century London.
3 Audiobooks
Modern literature: a novel, Volume 3 (of 3)
by Robert Bisset
Modern literature: a novel, Volume 1 (of 3)
by Robert Bisset
Modern literature: a novel, Volume 2 (of 3)
by Robert Bisset
About the author
Born in Perthshire around 1759, Robert Bisset studied at the University of Edinburgh and at first prepared for a legal career. He later worked as a teacher in England and became head of an academy in Chelsea, while also writing for periodicals and building a reputation as a professional man of letters.
Bisset wrote across several genres, including history, politics, fiction, and biography. He is chiefly remembered for his Life of Edmund Burke and for biographies of Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, and other contributors to The Spectator. His work reflects the strongly argued political climate of the 1790s and early 1800s, when writers often moved freely between journalism, public debate, and book publishing.
He died on May 14, 1805. Although he is not widely known today, Bisset offers a good glimpse of the energetic literary world of his time: scholarly, argumentative, and closely tied to the public issues of the day.