The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds : A Critical Edition / edited by Amber K. Regis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Symonds, John Addington, 1840-1893, author.

Contributor:

Regis, Amber K., Editor.

Series:

Genders and Sexualities in History, 2730-9487

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Great Britain--History.

Great Britain.

Literature, Modern--19th century.

Literature, Modern.

Europe--History--1492-.

Europe.

Literature--History and criticism.

Literature.

Sex.

History of Britain and Ireland.

Nineteenth-Century Literature.

History of Modern Europe.

Literary History.

Gender Studies.

Local Subjects:

History of Britain and Ireland.

Nineteenth-Century Literature.

History of Modern Europe.

Literary History.

Gender Studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (595 pages).

Edition:

1st ed. 2016.

Place of Publication:

London : Palgrave Macmillan UK : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Summary:

This edition is the first to reproduce John Addington Symonds’s Memoirs in its entirety. It offers a panoramic view of middle-class Victorian life, shedding light upon sexual cultures and life histories too often hidden from history. Symonds (1840-93) began writing his Memoirs in 1889. It was, he confessed, ‘a foolish thing to do.’ Symonds was a respected man of letters, an historian, translator, essayist and poet; he was also married with children. But rather than unfold a simple tale of public and private achievement, the Memoirs record his struggle to reconcile his homosexuality with these professional and familial identities. His autobiography offers a confessional account of relationships beyond the accepted bounds of nineteenth-century social mores, presenting an alternative case study that contests the legal and medical authorities that would label his desires a crime or disease. Yet being so eloquent on matters of heterodox sexuality, the Memoirswere suppressed. The manuscript survives because Symonds recognised its import, however ‘foolish’: he instructed his literary executor to preserve the text, a duty ultimately discharged by placing the manuscript under embargo in the care of the London Library.

Contents:

Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

List of Tables

Introduction

Notes on the Text

The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds

Appendix 1: Miscellaneous papers bound with the Memoirs manuscript

Appendix 2: Letters bound with Chapter 16

Appendix 3: Rewritten pages (MS 517a-b)

Index .

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9781137291240

1137291249