Student Life in Nineteenth-Century Cambridge
John Wright's Alma Mater
edited by Christopher Stray
Hardback (Published)
(January 2023)
ISBN: 9781804130278
6.1 x 9.17 inches
Price: $106.00
In stock
This book tells the story of John Wright, a talented but poor student at Cambridge who was deprived of success and impelled to make a living as hack writer in London, where he was often imprisoned for debt. His memoir, along with the in-depth commentary and detailed scholarly notes presented here, offers extraordinary reading.
John’s Wright’s Alma Mater was the first book-length student memoir to be published in Britain. Yet this trailblazing and revealing work has never been reprinted since its appearance in 1827. Full of fascinating detail about college life, it discusses teaching, examinations and student socialising, including sport, hunting and recourse to prostitutes. A remarkable story of success and failure, it often resembles a picaresque novel: after an eventful undergraduate career, Wright became a hack writer and tutor in London. His marriage failed, his wife left him, his children went to the workhouse, and ultimately he was transported for theft to Tasmania, where he died a premature death. This autobiographical memoir has often been referred to or quoted by studies of Cambridge University and the history of mathematics, but the life of its author has never been satisfactorily explored. This new edition makes an important source and a vivid historical document available for the first time. It includes an in-depth exploration of university and college archives, while Wright’s life is also investigated through outside sources, such as the records of the Royal Literary Fund and those of court, prison and transportation authorities. Wright’s account, along with the commentary and notes presented here, offers extraordinary reading for anyone interested in the history of the University of Cambridge, the teaching of mathematics in the nineteenth century and the life of Grub Street, the London literary underworld in the 1820s and 1830s. The more general reader will also be surprised and entertained by this topsy-turvy tale recounted with candour and verve.
- Edited by Christopher Stray
Similar Books
Antiquarian Book-trade in Switzerland
Sir Thomas Phillipps's Acquisitions in the 1820s and their Later Dispersal
Volume 69
Beyond Sovereign Courts
Agents and Practices in Early Modern Spanish and Habsburg Diplomacy
Volume 3
Performing Science, Mediating Knowledge
Science, Showmanship, and the Performance of Authority in the Long Nineteenth Century
Volume 21
Aporien des Geschichtsunterrichts?
Suchbewegungen im Spannungsfeld zwischen Geschichtsdidaktik und Sonderpädagogik
Volume 40
Credit Default Swap-Aktivismus
Eine ökonomische Analyse und rechtliche Bewertung der Einflussnahme von Credit Default Swap-Investoren auf Unternehmen
Figuren des Relationalen
(Queer-)Feministische Perspektiven auf visuelle Kultur, Geschichte und Erinnerungsarbeit bei Walter Benjamin und Alexander Kluge
Volume 8
Indirekte Enteignung
Verfassungsunmittelbar gebotene Entschädigungspflicht im Spiegel des Mehrebenensystems
Sitten zwischen Moralphilosophie und Politischer Okonomie am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts
Mit einer zweisprachigen Edition von Ludwig Heinrich Jakobs Preisschrift Quelles sont les institutions les plus propres a fonder la morale d'un peuple
Wertebildung in der Schule
Struktur, Vermittlung, Entwicklungsdynamik - Herausforderungen und Ambivalenzen
A Companion to Political Leadership in Central and Eastern Europe after 1990
Democratization – Political Parties – Elections
Volume 3
Animal Magnetism in Motion / Le magnetisme animal en mouvement
Reconfigurations and Circulations, 1776-1848 / Reconfigurations et circulations, 1776-1848
Autocratic Rule in Antiquity
Proceedings of the 14th Melammu Workshop, Krakow, 46 October 2021
Volume 12
Evolutionary Theory and Education
The Influence of Evolutionary Thinking on Educational Theory and Philosophy
Volume 5
