The autobiography of Arthur Young: With Selections From His Correspondence

About this book

The work is an autobiographical memoir of Arthur Young, the eighteenth‑century English agriculturist whose “Travels in France” made him a household name. Edited by M. Betham‑Edwards, the volume combines Young’s own narrative with selected letters, offering a chronologically ordered account from his birth in 1741 through his later years of blindness and loss. The introductory note frames the text as a candid self‑portrait, emphasizing Young’s “outspokenness” and the editor’s restraint in cutting the original material, while the detailed contents list signals a comprehensive sweep of his life, childhood, marriage, farming experiments, multiple journeys to France, and extensive correspondence with figures such as Dr. Johnson, Bentham and the French agronomists. The opening passage already situates Young within a network of family ties, land inheritances, and early education, setting the stage for a memoir that intertwines personal recollection with broader social and agricultural concerns.

The voice is unmistakably that of a learned gentleman of the late Georgian era, marked by formal diction, occasional parenthetical asides, and a penchant for genealogical detail. The prose reflects the period’s reverence for self‑examination and public service, interlaced with occasional humor and vivid anecdote. Readers who appreciate historical autobiography, especially those interested in the development of agricultural thought, eighteenth‑century travel, and the interplay of personal and political life, will find Young’s narrative rewarding. Its blend of intimate family history, extensive correspondence, and reflections on contemporary intellectual currents makes it a valuable resource for scholars of social history, as well as for general readers drawn to the lived experience of a figure who straddled the worlds of farming, politics, and international friendship.

Opening lines

This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as italic. Superscripted characters are indicated using a carat (‘^’). If multiple characters are encountered, they are enclosed in brackets ‘{ }’. …

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