Gossip in a Library
by
Edmund Gosse
Introduction
Edmund Gosse (1849-1928) was a prominent
critic of art and literature in the late 19th Century. His father
was a naturalist and was deeply committed to a small Puritanical sect, the
Plymouth Brethren. His childhood was initially happy as they spent their
summers in Devon where his father was developing the ideas which gave rise to
the craze for the marine aquarium. After his mother died when he was eight they
moved to Devon permanently. His life with his father became increasingly
strained by his father's expectations that he should follow in his religious
tradition. Gosse was sent to a boarding school where he began to develop his
own interests in literature. He later gave an account of his childhood in the
book Father and Son which has
been described as the first psychological biography. At the age of 18 and
working in the British Museum in London, he broke away from his father's
influence.
His accomplishments include translating
Ibsen into English for the first time, and becoming one of England's leading
art critics, specialising in sculpture. He taught literature at Cambridge.
Later, he became the librarian of the House of Lords. He was also a collector
of rare books himself, and Gossip in a
Library consists of a series of reviews, some adulatory, others quite
scathing, of some of his favourites. A few of them are already in our
collection; others will be added in the future. Most are available as page
scans in various places in the World Wide Web — see the list
at the end of the book.
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