Student Life in NineteenthCentury Cambridge

John Wright’s Alma Mater

CHRISTOPHER STRAY

The only edition of this first book-length student memoir to be published in Britain since its original appearance in 1827. Packed with fascinating and entertaining detail about college life.

Commentary and detailed notes offer numerous scholarly insights.

This book tells the story of John Wright, a talented but poor student at Cambridge who was deprived of success and impelled to make a living as hack writer in London, where he was often imprisoned for debt. His memoir, along with the in-depth commentary and detailed scholarly notes presented here, offers extraordinary reading.

PRAISE FOR STUDENT LIFE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY CAMBRIDGE

Restored to health by Stray‘s perfect editing, this strangely helpful account of Cambridge two centuries ago by a sometime undergraduate scoundrel is a mélange of odd details, welcome fact, fiction, frenzy and color.

Sheldon Rothblatt, University of California, Berkeley

J.M.F. Wright’s picaresque account of his undergraduate days in early nineteenth-century Cambridge has been largely overlooked for nearly 200 years. Now, with an illuminating introduction and numerous informative annotations, Stray’s masterly edition breathes new life into this forgotten gem.

Professor Adrian Rice, Randolph-Macon College, Virginia

Dr Stray is to be congratulated on the heroic work it has taken to make this text accessible in all its detail but also in all its rawness.

Dr. Gillian Sutherland, Newnham College, Cambridge

Biographical Note

Christopher Stray is a Cambridge Classics graduate. He taught in schools before undertaking research on the history of education, and has held visiting positions at the universities of Cambridge, Yale and Princeton. He has published widely on schools and universities, examinations and institutional slang.

PUBLISHER

SIZE 234 x 156 mm

PAGES

274pp

BIC SUBJECTS

HBTB, JNMN, BGA

BISAC SUBJECTS

HIS054000, EDU015000, BIO000000

RIGHTS

World