A Problem In Modern Ethics

by John Addington Symonds

In this work, Symonds argues against Krafft-Ebings’ belief that homosexuality is acquired. The volumes contents include an historical survey of homosexuality, various modern theories as to its cause, and a concluding section dealing with suggested amendments in legislation. Considered a major classic in field, Symonds’ analysis of homosexuality with some religious relevance also contains a chapter on the very sensitive subject of Walt Whitman and homosexuality, which is the earliest serious study of the subject.

Poet, essayist, and literary historian, John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) delved into every field of the humanities, writing the celebrated Renaissance in Italy and publishing translations of the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini and the Sonnets of Michelangelo and Campanella; he wrote biographies of Shelley, Sidney, Jonson, and Whitman, and collaborated with Havelock Ellis on a number of projects in sexology. He is remembered for his untiring efforts to loosen the restraints on homosexuals in England, and his Memoirs are the only diary of a Victorian homosexual of his stature.