Introdiction by Don Cupitt

This two-part novel, first published in the 1880s, has made its reputation as an outstanding example of autobiographical writing. It is also well known for its ironic depiction of provincial non-conformism and for its sombre picture of life in Victorian London.

The story of Mark Rutherford is partly based on the author’s life, and reflects some of the turning-points of Hale White’s development. These include a religious crisis while studying at a non-conformist theology college, the pain and difficulty of making a life for himself in mid-nineteenth-century London, and encounters and friendships with independent-minded and sometimes radical Dissenters. The book also contains a lively and unusual close-up portrait, in fictional disguise, of George Eliot, with whom Hale White worked for a time in the 1850s.

Don Cupitt’s introduction provides the biographical and theological background. In addition, while careful to distinguish between Mark Rutherford and his creator, he shows the extent to which the book draws in detail not only on real episodes in Hale White’s life, but on his reading and on the influences – philosophic, literary, and religious – which surrounded him in the form of public controversy and debate.

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The autobiograpby of Mark Rutherford first published by Trübner in 1881
Mark Rutherford’s deliverance first published by Trübner in 1885
Published by Libris in 1988