Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments

by Edmund Gosse

"Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments" by Edmund Gosse is a memoir published in 1907. It chronicles Gosse's childhood in a devout Plymouth Brethren household, exploring the tension between his deeply religious father—a zoologist who rejected Darwin's theories—and the son's gradual departure from Christian fundamentalism. Through small domestic diplomacies and gentle wit, the book captures an intense father-son relationship and the experience of religious adolescence in Victorian England. Critics praise it as a brilliant social document and pioneering memoir of self-discovery.