Synopsis
"If any one should importune me to give a reason why I loved him [Stephen de la Boëtie] I feel it could no otherwise be expressed than by making answer, 'Because it was he; because it was I.'" -from "Montaigne on Friendship" Socialist advocate, progressive educator, and amateur mystic, Edward Carpenter is perhaps best remembered today for his conflicted homosexuality, and his name remains a rallying point of gay communities in Britain. This circumspect 1902 work draws on and quotes from a panoply of impressive sources, from the Iliad and Tacitus's military commentary to Saint Augustine and Herman Melville's account of his 1841-5 journey through the Pacific Islands, to explore the idea of "friendship"-that is, male homosexuality-in cultures around the planet and throughout history. This lovely book is a poignant reminder of a more cautious time. British activist and writer EDWARD CARPENTER (1844-1929) produced books and pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects; his works include Prisons, Police, and Punishment (1905) and The Religious Influence of Art (1870). He is best known for his epic poem cycle, Towards Democracy (1883).
Biographie de l'auteur
About the Author:
"Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, anthologist, early homosexual activist, and socialist philosopher.
A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J K Kinney, Jack London, George Merrill, E D Morel, William Morris, E R Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.
As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that human societies pass through. Civilisations, he says, rarely last more than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed through civilisation successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as 'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud, and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis, and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.
A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a gay community near Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D H Lawrence and E M Forster.
He was also the first person to introduce the wearing of sandals into Britain." (Quote from wikipedia.org)
Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.
