Autobiography (Classics)

At three years old John Stuart Mill was studying arithmetic and Greek; by the time he was six he was enjoying Hume and Gibbon and writing Roman histories. Diffident, intellectually brilliant, fearless and profound, he became one of the greatest of the Victorian liberals and his works - particularly On Liberty, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women and this Autobiography - are among the crowning achievements of the age. 'Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so ...' Central to the Autobiography is Mill's moving account of the mental crisis he suffered as a young man, and his discovery of a world of feeling and emotion that drew him away from Benthamite utilitarianism and his father's ambitions for him and towards the Romantic radicalism of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Jane and Thomas Carlyle, Auguste Comte and Saint-Simon. The tension between thought and feeling, the struggle to improve the individual and society, preoccupied Mill all his life and imbue his... Inn-keepers and prostitutes, kings and cardinals, artists and soldiers rub shoulders in the pages of Cellini's notorious autobiography.Benvenuto Cellini was a celebrated goldsmith and distinguished sculptor, yet it is on his autobiography that much of his fame rests. Begun in Florence when he was fifty-eight, it was primarily intended to be the story of his life and art, his tragedies and triumphs. However, as he was an active participant in the wars and struggles of the period, and drew his friends and enemies from all levels of society, it became a vivid and convincing portrait of the manners and morals both of the rulers of the sixteenth century and of their subjects. With enviable powers of invective and an irrepressible sense of humour, reflected in an equally vigorous and extravagant style, Cellini has provided an intriguing and unrivalled glimpse into the palaces and prisons of the Italy of Michelangelo and the Medici. For this edition, George Bull has revised and expanded his Introduction, added comprehensive notes and updated the Bibliography One of the greatest prodigies of his era, John Stuart Mill (1806-73) was studying arithmetic and Greek by the age of three, as part of an astonishingly intense education at his father's hand. Intellectually brilliant, fearless and profound, he became a leading Victorian liberal thinker, whose works - including On Liberty, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women and this Autobiography - are among the crowning achievements of the age. Here he describes the pressures placed on him by his childhood, the mental breakdown he suffered as a young man, his struggle to understand a world of feelings and emotions far removed from his father's strict didacticism, and the later development of his own radical beliefs. A moving account of an extraordinary life, this great autobiography reveals a man of deep integrity, constantly searching for truth. An autobiography of John Stuart Mill (1806-73). This title describes the pressures placed on him by his childhood, the mental breakdown he suffered as a young man, his struggle to understand a world of feelings and emotions far removed from his father's strict didacticism, and the later development of his own radical beliefs.