Author: FRANSHAM (John). SAINT (William):
Title: Memoirs of the Life, Character, Opinions, and Writing, of that Learned and Eccentric Man, The Late John Fransham, or Norwich.
Description: Norwich: Printed by C. Berry..., [1811]. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo, 158 x 107 mms., pp. viii, 158, recent linen spine, paper label, plain gray boards; lacks half-title. This memoir of John Fransham (1730 - 1810), an eccentric but brilliant scholar and teacher, was written by one of his students, William Saint, later a maths teacher. He was a great admirer of David Hume, and reviewers of this volume generated some controversy in the review journals about his religious beliefs. He certainly seemed to attract a lot of attention, as there was a short biography of him by the reviewer and translator William Taylor (1765 - 1836) in the Monthly Magazine for May, 1811, the journal in which Fransham's life and beliefs were the subject of correspondence and controversy. Among the various validations of Fransham's eccentricity was his fear of being buried alive, and he "he repeatedly desired, that his body should be laid before a fire, that wine should be offered to his lip, and that the arm of a woman clasped about his neck, before he was given up as irrecoverable." A nice way to go.

Keywords: biography eccentric prose literature


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