Description
Book Synopsis
"An American in Victorian Cambridge" is a richly detailed account of student life in the Cambridge of the 1840s. The rationale for the book, which is as appealing today as it was then, is that this is pre-eminently a book about an American student at an English university. In this new edition, some substantial additions have been made.
Trade Review
‘Bristed’s account provides under a new title an unusual and frequently very funny snapshot of Victorian Cambridge.’ ‘His intelligence and wit, and the peculiar sympathy of his character, make this an invaluable reprint of a unique and accessible account.’ (The Times Literary Supplement. No 5529, March 20, 2009)
‘Christopher Stray has done a brilliant job of unburdening and illuminating Bristed’s text. (…) Drawing copiously on his own expert knowledge both of Classics and Cambridge, his introduction and notes give ample context fro most of Bristed’s introverted obsessions and turn them into useful evidence for a better understanding of elite education in Victorian Britain.’ (Times Higher Education, 26, February 2009)
‘With much patience and skill, Stray has performed a…resurrection upon Bristed’s forgotten literary classic, and he has further refreshed it with the addition of contemporary illustration by John Lewis Roget (son of Thesaurus Roget). Roget’s pen and ink renderings, such as this oft-repeated…reinforce the literary portraiture with a simplicity of line that anticipates later English illustrators E.H. Shepard and C.G. Harper’ (Carlyle Studies Annual, 25, June 2010)
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Photograph of Charles Astor Bristed
Foreword by Patrick Leary
Introduction by Christopher Stray
Bibliography
Original dedication
Original preface
1. First Impressions of Cambridge [1840]
2. Some Preliminaries, Rather Egotistical but Very Necessary [1835-9]
3. Introduction to College Life
4. The Cantab Language
5. An American Student's First Impressions at Cambridge and on Cambridge
6. Freshman Temptations and Experiences
7. The Boat Race [1841]
8. A Trinity Supper Party [1840]
9. The May Examination [1841]
10. The First Long Vacation [1841]
11. The Second Year [1841-2]
12. Third Year [1842-3]
13. Private Tuition
14. Long Vacation Amusements [1843]
15. A Second Edition of Third Year [1843-4]
16. The Scholarship Examination [1844]
17. The Reading Party [1844]
18. Sawdust Pudding with Ballad Sauce [1844]
19. On the Razor's Edge [1844-5]
20. How I Came To Take a Degree [1845]
21. The Polloi and the Civil Law Classes
22. The Classical Tripos [1845]
23. A visit to Eton. English Public Schools
24. Being Extinguished [1845]
25. Reading for a Trinity Fellowship [1845]
26. The study of Theology at Cambridge
27. Recent Changes at Cambridge
28. The Cambridge System of Education in its Intellectual Results
29. Physical and Social Habits of Cambridge Men. Their Amusements, &c.
30. On the State of Morals and Religion in Cambridge
31. The Puseyite Disputes in Cambridge, and the Cambridge Camden Society
32. Inferiority of our Colleges and Universities in Scholarship
33. Supposed Counterbalancing Advantages of American Colleges
34. The Advantages of Classical Studies, Particularly in Reference to the Youth of our Country
35. What Can and Ought We To Do for our Colleges?
Charles Astor Bristed 1820-1874: An annotated bibliography
Index
