ABSTRACT
A useful concept for analysing the intersection of Classics and class in such materials is transformation, which Carolyn Barros, in her study of five eminent Victorians’ autobiographies, argues is central to life-writing. Working-class memoirs include not only published books, but unpublished reminiscences, letters, diaries and personal journals. The likelihood of working-class people writing about their own lives increased proportionately with the amount of access they enjoyed to workers’ libraries and other institutional support. One important category of autobiographies by individuals born into the working class is constituted by those who succeeded in accessing a classical education, which directly precipitated them into a professional career. A very few—mostly Scotsmen—became distinguished scholars of Classics or comparative philology. A similarly discouraging early encounter with Classics, which nevertheless nourished a love of literature and learning in maturity, was recorded by Henry Hawker, the son of a Somerset coachman.
