The Blind Victorian : Henry Fawcett and British Liberalism

When Henry Fawcett died in 1884 he was among the most famous men of his age. This book examines aspects of his life and career - his personal life, including his friendship with the critic and writer, Leslie Stephen, and his marriage to Millicent Garrett Fawcett, the famous feminist.

When Henry Fawcett died in 1884 he was among the most famous men of his age. From a relatively humble background he had risen to become Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge, a Liberal MP and a minister in Gladstone's second government. And he had achieved all this despite being blinded at the age of twenty-five in a shooting accident. Indeed, he was probably the first blind MP in British history. This book examines aspects of his life and career - his personal life, including his friendship with the critic and writer, Leslie Stephen, and his marriage to Millicent Garrett Fawcett, the famous feminist; his intellectual contribution to Victorian culture as a friend and disciple of John Stuart Mill; his influential role as a populariser of economic thought from his position at Cambridge; his political outlook and campaigns as a radical Liberal who often opposed Gladstone, his party leader, for his timidity.