"This story is the record of a struggle between two temperaments, two consciences and almost two epochs. It ended, as was inevitable, in disruption. Of the two human beings here described, one was born to fly backward, the other could not help being carried forward.

The affection of these two persons was assailed by forces in comparison with which the changes that health or fortune or place introduce are as nothing. It is not usual, perhaps, that the narrative of a spirited struggle should mingle merriment and humour with a discussion of the most solemn subjects.

But.... there was an extraordinary mixture of comedy and tragedy in the situation and those who are affected by the pathos of it will not need to have it explained to them that the comedy was superficial and the tragedy essential"

Edmund William Gosse (1849 –1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He worked as assistant librarian at the British Museum and became a translator at the Board of Trade. In the meantime, he published his first volume of poetry, On Viol and Flute (1873) and a work of criticism, Studies in the Literature of Northern Europe (1879). He became acquainted with the pre-Raphaelites and Algernon Swinburne. He became, in the 1880s, one of the most important art critics dealing with sculpture.

From 1904, Gosse was librarian of the House of Lords, where he exercised considerable influence. He wrote for the Sunday Times, and was an expert on Thomas Gray, William Congreve, John Donne, Jeremy Taylor, and Coventry Patmore. He can also take credit for introducing Ibsen's work to the British public. His most famous book is the autobiographical Father and Son, about his troubled relationship with his father, Philip, which was dramatised for television by Dennis Potter.