At birth Edmund Gosse was dedicated to the Service of the Lord. His parents were Plymouth Brethren. After his mothers death Gosse was brought up in stifling isolation by his father a marine biologist whose faith overcame his reason when confronted by Darwins theory of evolution. Father & Son" is also the record of Gosses struggle to fashion his inner life for himself
- a record of whose full & subversive implications the author was unaware as Peter Abbs notes in his introduction. First published anonymously in 1907 " Father & Son" was immediately acclaimed for its courage in flouting the conventions of Victorian autobiography & is still a moving account of self-discovery."