ABSTRACT
Walter Pater has proved an elusive figure for biographers who have often emphasized the deep contrast between the daring aesthetic message of The Renaissance and his apparently very quiet and studious life in Oxford’s academic environment. Although Pater rejects habit as a “failure” in the “Conclusion” to The Renaissance, he acknowledges its structuring power in brain building and in the construction of culture. Pater explores the border between conscious and unconscious memory as he describes how those vivid, epiphanic, timeless moments unleash the imaginary realm of dreams, allowing the mind to aestheticize experience in gem-like fragments saved from time. The questions raised by Pater’s advocacy of art for art’s sake are at the heart of conflicting interpretations of his life and character, as he is portrayed in turn as a reclusive writer immersed in his works or as a transgressor of Victorian conventions.
