Written Lives

Written Lives is a collection of biographical sketches of famous literary figures, written by Spanish author Javier Marías and originally published in 1992. Margaret Jull Costa's English translation was published by New Directions in 2006.
The literary figures featured include:

There is also, towards the end of the book, a section entitled 'Fugitive Women', which includes shorter sketches of Emily Brontë, Julie de Lespinasse, Violet Hunt, Vernon Lee, Adah Isaacs Menken and Lady Hester Stanhope. The final chapter, 'Perfect Artists', looks more generally at the tradition of the literary artist.