Glimpses of the Wonderful : The Life of Philip Henry Gosse

by Ann Thwaite

This is a vivid reassessment of the life of Philip Henry Gosse, the renowned Victorian naturalist, author, illustrator and Christian fundamentalist, who as both friend and antagonist of Charles Darwin, was at the very heart of the Victorian conflict between science and religion. The author of 40 books, Philip Henry Gosse also perfected and popularized the aquarium and travelled widely before settling in Devon as a self-trained entomologist, botanist, lepidopterist, ornithologist and above all, marine biologist. In a reassessment of the extraordinary life of the man described by Stephen Jay Gould, the Harvard palaeontologist, as the "David Attenborough of his day", Ann Thwaite also addresses the key question of why he has been perceived as a cruel and tyrannical father - a notion generally attributed to "Father and Son", the classic memoir by his son Edmund. But Edmund himself was shocked and surprised by such reactions to his work. The father he remembered - the man deemed by the Royal Society to have done more than any before to popularize the study of natural history in England - was at odds with this portrait he seemed to have delivered to the public domain.

Genres: Biography

368 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2002

About the author

Ann Thwaite is a British writer who is the author of five major biographies. AA Milne: His Life was the Whitbread Biography of the Year, 1990. Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape (Duff Cooper Prize, 1985) was described by John Carey as "magnificent - one of the finest literary biographies of our time". Glimpses of the Wonderful about the life of Edmund Gosse's father, Philip Henry Gosse, was picked out by D.J. Taylor in The Independent as one of the "Ten Best Biographies" ever. Her biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett was originally published as Waiting for the Party (1974) and reissued in 2020 with the title Beyond the Secret Garden, with a foreword by Jacqueline Wilson. Emily Tennyson, The Poet's Wife (1996) was reissued by Faber Finds for the Tennyson bicentenary in 2009.

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and a good antedote to "Father and Son". The author has done lots of research. She demonstrates how Edmund Gosse - like all children who write cricital books about their parents - are blinded by their own perceptions on things. It was good to have an insight in Philip Gosse's world and his life, and to see what made him the person he was when Edmund came along.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating glimpse into the life of this enigmatic and intriguing Victorian. Thwaites does a wonderful job of trying to square the contradictions in his life to present a vivid picture of one of the most unusual men I have ever encountered. Pity she ends so abruptly, with his death. I would have liked more analysis, but perhaps squaring the circle of his contradictions - creationist, Christian fundamentalist, biologist, loving family man - is beyond the powers of any mere mortal!