Edmund Gosse: 19 books

It is curious to reflect that the library, in our customary sense, is quite a modern institution. Three hundred years ago there were no public libraries in Europe. The Ambrosian, at Milan, dates from 1608; the Bodleian, at Oxford, from 1612. To these Angelo Rocca added his in Rome, in 1620. But private...

This vintage book contains Thomas Nashe's 1594 novel, "The Unfortunate Traveller: or, the Life of Jack Wilton". A lively and adventurous work of prose fiction, this famous book follows Jack Wilton in his daring escapades in Europe as he becomes intertwined with various historical events of sixteenth...

This 1884 biography of Thomas Gray was the first full-length treatment of its subject.  Gosse was an authority on Gray, the editor of his collected works, and his knowledge and affinity for the poet makes this a first-class literary biography.

Based on letters and some information previously unavailable, the author gives “a full portrait” Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618): poet, soldier, courtier, spy, explorer, and popularizer of tobacco use. It is also one of the first biographies to emphasize Raleigh’s private life—and not the historical...