Excerpt from John Addington Symonds, a Biography, Vol. 1 of 2: Compiled From His Papers and Correspondence The object which I proposed to myself in compiling this book was twofold. I desired, if possible, to present a portrait of a singular personality, and I hoped to be able to achieve this object mainly by allowing Symonds to speak for himself - to tell his own story. The book, in short, was to be as closely autobiographical as I could make it. The material at my disposal was unusually abun dant. I imagine that few men of letters have left behind them, in addition to some thirty published volumes, such a mass of letters, diaries, note-books, and memoranda as that which has passed through my hands. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.