Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2016

The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds

A Critical Edition

Palgrave Macmillan

Editors:

  • Reproduces the full text of John Addington Symonds’s Memoirs for the first time
  • Uncovers the manuscript’s fascinating history from Symonds’s death to its first publication
  • Reveals the emendations and eccentricities of the original manuscript through extensive notes

Part of the book series: Genders and Sexualities in History (GSX)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 34.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (20 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
  2. Introduction

    • Amber K. Regis
    Pages 1-56
  3. The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 57-57
    2. Preface

      • Amber K. Regis
      Pages 59-61
    3. Chapter 12: Emotional Development

      • Amber K. Regis
      Pages 361-377
    4. Chapter 13: Norman

      • Amber K. Regis
      Pages 379-413
    5. Chapter 15: Religious Development

      • Amber K. Regis
      Pages 463-476

About this book

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.

Editors and Affiliations

  • School of English, University of Sheffield School of English, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Amber K. Regis

About the editor

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.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 34.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access