Palgrave Macmillan The memoirs of john addington symonds: a critical edition, paperback/amber k. regis

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Description 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 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.

About the Author 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.