Author: FERRAR (Nicholas). TURNER (Francis). [MACDONOG (Terene Michael), editor]:
Title: Brief Memoirs of Nicholas Ferrar, M. A. And Founder of Clare-Hall, Cambridge, Founder of a Protestant Religious Establishment at Little Giddings, Huntingdonshire; Collected from a Narrative by the Right Reverend Dr. Turner, Formerly Bishop of Ely; Now edited with Additions and Biographical Notices of some of Mr. Ferrar's Contemporaries. By a Clergyman of the Established Church.
Description: Bristol: Printed and Published by J. Chilcott..., 1829. FIRST EDITION. 12mo, 181 x 109 mms., pp. [iv], vii [viii blank] [3] 4 - 248, original boards, uncut; binding fragile, with spine cracked and other wear, but with contemporary purchase notes, a transcription of Byron's "Maid of Athens" on the front end-papers, other textual history on verso of front free end-paper, some emendations to text in a contemporary hand. Nicholas Ferrar (1593–1637) established his household of about 40 souls in 1625 at Little Gidding. "The life of the household, subsequently caricatured as 'the Arminian nunnery' in the 1641 pamphlet of that name, was dedicated to the daily reading and discussion of scripture, rigorous education (including household accounting and basic medical skills for Ferrar's nieces) and to the craft of bookbinding" (ODNB). The religious establishment " drew heavily on the early church model recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles" (ODNB). T. S. Eliot made the community famous again with his poem "Little GIdding," published in 1942 and in 1943 as one of the Four Quartets. Let me spoil the story a little bit: when the work was republished in 1837, The Church of England Quarterly Review sourly commented, "These memoirs are weakly written, and abundant in improbabilities: such a precocious boy as little Master Nicholas Ferrar never lived before or since..... His travels savour of romance; and whatever truth may be inherent in them, their decorations are evidently the labour of fancy." So, the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started.

Keywords: biography religion prose


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