Father and Son

Father and Son recounts Gosse's childhood as a member of a Victorian Protestant sect and his struggles to forge his own identity despite the loving control of his father. A key document of the crisis of faith and an exploration of the impact of evolutionary science, Father and Son is here printed with extracts from Philip Gosse's Omphalos.

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'This book is the record of a struggle between two temperaments, two consciences and almost two epochs.' Father and Son stands as one of English literature's seminal autobiographies. In it Edmund Gosse recounts, with humour and pathos, his childhood as a member of a Victorian Protestant sect and his struggles to forge his own identity despite the loving control of his father. A key document of the crisis of faith and doubt; a penetrating exploration of the impact of evolutionary science; an astute, well-observed, and moving portrait of the tensions of family life: Father and Son remains a classic of twentieth-century literature. As well as an illuminating introduction, this edition also provides a series of fascinating appendices including extracts from Philip Gosse's Omphalos and his harrowing account of his wife's death from breast cancer.