JohnAddingtonSymonds(Bristol1840-Rome1893)wasoneofVictorianBritain’smostprolificauthors,withworksthatincludedpoems,translations,travelessays,andscholarlystudiesontopicsrangingfromclassicalliteraturetotheRenaissancetothepoetryofhiscontemporaries.Today,however,heisusuallyrememberedforhislongunpublishedMemoirs,amajorearlymonumentofqueerlife-writing,andfortwoprivatelyprinted,secretlycirculatedessays,oneofwhichincludestheearliestprintedappearanceinEnglishofthewordhomosexual.Thisnewword,firstcoinedinGerman,haslongprovidedausefulmilestoneforhistoriansofsexualitychartingtheemergencenotonlyofnewtypologiesbutofwholenewregimesofknowledge.ButwhatoftherestofSymonds’svastbodyofwork?ThisbookreturnstoSymonds,notastheoriginofanowfamiliarhistory,butasafarmorecomplexthinker,withanambitiousvisionofthequeernessoftheworlditself--andofwhatitmeanstoliveinit.
