Criticizing (or Praising) the Author
            
             An author may never know if their creation will be popular, liked, or just plain forgotten, but they can rely on one simple fact, that no matter what eventually someone is going to read their book and criticize it in one way or another. There are many different ways to criticize a novel, but biographical criticism lets a person look at the author for answers. Biographical criticism acknowledges that novels, plays, ect, are written by human beings and that an authors background can help us to better understand why an author wrote something. Biographical criticism is important for many reasons; one is that a writer's life may help to understand their literature. Also the reader may understand the elements the author uses in their work. The author's background often adds significance to the written work. Finally it helps the reader to understand the author's audience and intention for the novel.
             This approach is very useful in understanding what the author intended, however one must be careful not to make a mistake when taking this approach. One is to not assume that the author's life is necessarily the same as the novels. One must also be careful not to use questionable sources of information about the author's life. One must present only the relevant facts about an author's life. Also when you use these facts, you must intemperate them so that you can make the appropriate connection between the author's life and their writing. It is pretty hard to do biographical criticism without at least touching upon the historical criticism. Many times an author's life will be affected be the time frame in which they have lived. Many dramatic events can affect how an author's life will unfold, and how this event will impact them. World War II is only one example but there are many others.
             While looking at biographical criticism one must remember that the author may have been living in very...