Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments

Father and Son is poet and literary critic Edmund Gosse's memoir, regarding his formative years growing up in a devout Protestant household of the Plymouth Brethren movement.

Gosse was born into a markedly religious family in 1849. In this autobiography, Gosse details his happy early years, which consisted of family holidays to Devon and its picturesque countryside and coastline. However the painful death of his mother from cancer while he was young would have great impact. The introspective chapters of the book led critics to call it one of the first ever psychological memoirs.

Today, Gosse's autobiography is most remembered and praised for its psychological depth and recollections of home life, and its vivid detail of devout Protestantism as it was during the 19th century. Edmund's father, Philip, was a marine biologist instrumental in the development of the very first aquariums and a contemporary of Charles Darwin. Darwin's theories on evolution would rock the Gosse family's perceptions of faith and the veracity of Creationism.

Gosse would later break from the Christian faith with aspirations towards literature, feeling creatively suppressed by the powerful religious convictions in his family home. In the final chapters, Gosse describes his creative awakening that led to his career as a poet and literary.