"This book is the record of a struggle between two temperaments, two consciences, and almost two epochs. It ended, as was inevitable, in disruption. Of the two being here described, one was born to fly backward, the other could not help being carried forward". Thus begins this remarkable chronicle of the division between generations. Goose was born in 1849 into a deeply religious household; both parents were pious member of the Plymouth Brethren, a narrow sect. This book, Gosse's masterpiece, was anonymously published in 1907.