An American in Victorian Cambridge

Charles Astor Bristed's 'Five Years in an English University'

Edited by Dr. Christopher Stray

Publication date:

21 November 2008

Publisher

University of Exeter Press

Dimensions:

229x152mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780859898249

Charles Astor Bristed (1820-1874) was the favourite grandson of John Jacob Astor (the first American multi-millionaire, and the Astor of the Waldorf-Astoria). After gaining a degree at Yale, Bristed entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1840, graduating in 1845. An American in Victorian Cambridge is a richly detailed account of student life in the Cambridge of the 1840s. The rationale for the book, which is as appealing today as it was then, is that this is pre-eminently a book about an American student at an English university. The book belongs to a fascinating nineteenth-century trans-Atlantic publishing genre: travel accounts designed to describe British culture to Americans and vice-versa.

In this new edition, some substantial additions have been made: the Foreword and Introduction both help to contextualise the work, and point to its significance as an important historical source and as a fascinating memoir of life in Victorian Cambridge; annotation helps to identify the individuals who appear in Bristed’s text; and an index allows full use to be made of the text for the first time.

Illustrations
Photograph of Charles Astor Bristed
Foreword by Patrick Leary
Introduction by Christopher Stray
Bibliography
Original dedication
Original preface

1. First Impressions of Cambridge [1840]
2. Some Preliminaries, Rather Egotistical but Very Necessary [1835-9]
3. Introduction to College Life
4. The Cantab Language
5. An American Student's First Impressions at Cambridge and on Cambridge
6. Freshman Temptations and Experiences
7. The Boat Race [1841]
8. A Trinity Supper Party [1840]
9. The May Examination [1841]
10. The First Long Vacation [1841]
11. The Second Year [1841-2]
12. Third Year [1842-3]
13. Private Tuition
14. Long Vacation Amusements [1843]
15. A Second Edition of Third Year [1843-4]
16. The Scholarship Examination [1844]
17. The Reading Party [1844]
18. Sawdust Pudding with Ballad Sauce [1844]
19. On the Razor's Edge [1844-5]
20. How I Came To Take a Degree [1845]
21. The Polloi and the Civil Law Classes
22. The Classical Tripos [1845]
23. A visit to Eton. English Public Schools
24. Being Extinguished [1845]
25. Reading for a Trinity Fellowship [1845]
26. The study of Theology at Cambridge
27. Recent Changes at Cambridge
28. The Cambridge System of Education in its Intellectual Results
29. Physical and Social Habits of Cambridge Men. Their Amusements, &c.
30. On the State of Morals and Religion in Cambridge
31. The Puseyite Disputes in Cambridge, and the Cambridge Camden Society
32. Inferiority of our Colleges and Universities in Scholarship
33. Supposed Counterbalancing Advantages of American Colleges
34. The Advantages of Classical Studies, Particularly in Reference to the Youth of our Country
35. What Can and Ought We To Do for our Colleges?

Charles Astor Bristed 1820-1874: An annotated bibliography
Index

Bristed’s account provides under a new title an unusual and frequently very funny snapshot of Victorian Cambridge.... His intelligence and wit, and the peculiar sympathy of his character, make this an invaluable reprint of a unique and accessible account.