Arthur Hugh Clough is one of the most undervalued Victorian poets. His importance is now being recognized, and the New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse assigns him his rightful position as a major poet. While an undergraduate at Balliol and a Fellow of Oriel, Clough wrote a series of intensely personal diaries, which throw light not only on his own development as a poet, but on the Oxford education of the time and the religious sensibility of the early Victorian era. Having been influenced by Thomas Arnold at Rugby, Clough felt the attraction at Oxford of the charisma of Newman. He was torn between the liberal and the catholic view of Christianity and began to raise the questions which led him eventually to agnosticism. In lighter moments the Diaries show Clough boating on the river and walking with Matthew Arnold through the countryside immortalized by The Scholar Gypsy.

Arthur Clough (1819-1861), one of the most undervalued of Victorian writers, is only now being recognized as a major poet. While an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, he wrote a series of intensely personal diaries that provide a candid view of his thoughts about the Victorian era, and that chart his development as a poet. In the letters, he discusses his Oxford education, the constant struggle between the liberal and the catholic view of Christianity which eventually led him to agnosticism, his interest in Newman's work at Oxford, and the influence of Thomas Arnold at Rugby. In lighter moments, the diaries paint a picture of a happier Clough, boating up the river and walking with Matthew Arnold through the countryside.

This careful and tactful edition of Clough's hitherto unpublished Oxford diaries, reproducing three quarters of the text, with quotations, repetitions and some minor material omitted, is a notable addition to the study of one of the most obliquely rewarding of Victorian poets.