When Louis XIV assumed the reins of government France suddenly and wonderfully came to her maturity; it was as if the whole nation had burst into splendid flower.

: /ˈdʒaɪlz ˈlɪtən ˈstreɪtʃɪ/; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was a British writer and critic. Giles Lytton Strachey (pron. His 1921 biography Queen Victoria was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.