Regis The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds

A Critical Edition
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-137-29124-0
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 587 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Genders and Sexualities in History

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 Memoirs were suppressed. The manuscriptsurvives 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.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Regis, Amber K.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents.- Acknowledgements.- List of Figures  .- L ist 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

Über Autor(innen)

Amber K. Regis is Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Sheffield, UK. She has published essays and reviews in Life Writing , Journal of Victorian Culture , and the Times Literary Supplement .