Father and Son — The Folio Society | Edmund Gosse | 1972 | First Edition | A Study of Two Temperaments | Illustrated

A copy of the Folio Society's 1972 edition of Father and Son by Edmund Gosse — one of the most remarkable memoirs in the English language, and a landmark in the literature of Victorian self-examination.

First published anonymously in 1907, Father and Son is Edmund Gosse's account of his extraordinary childhood — raised in a household of strict Plymouth Brethren faith by his father Philip Gosse, a distinguished marine biologist whose scientific knowledge placed him in agonising conflict with Darwin's theory of evolution. The elder Gosse's response — to reject evolution entirely on grounds of Scripture — is one of the great intellectual tragedies of the Victorian age, and his son's gradual, painful liberation from his father's world is told with a delicacy, wit, and compassion that has never been surpassed. It is at once a document of religious history, a study of the Victorian family, and one of the most searching explorations of the father-son relationship in all of literature. First published anonymously, it was immediately recognised as a masterpiece.

The Folio Society production is an attractive one. The cloth boards are printed with full-colour watercolour illustrations — the family home in Devon on the front board, a lush Victorian garden on the rear — vivid, warm, and entirely in sympathy with the domestic intimacy of Gosse's narrative. Gold lettering to spine. Black and white photographic plates throughout. Marbled endpapers. Introduction by Peter Abbs.

Housed in the original grey card slipcase.

Condition note: The boards are bright and clean. The spine shows noticeable fading, as is common with this edition. The slipcase has splitting and wear to the corners. The interior of the book is clean, fresh, and unmarked throughout — a sound reading and collecting copy at an honest price.