Christopher Stray, Department of Classics, Swansea University, is the author of Classics Transformed: Universities and Societies in England 1830-1960 (OUP 1998); The Living Word: WHD Rouse and the Crisis of Classics in Edwardian England (BCP 1992); Gilbert Murray Reassessed: Hellenism, Theatre and International Politics (OUP 2007). He has been described by Professor Amy Richlin (UCLA) as ‘the God-Emperor of Victorian Classics’.Patrick Leary is a historian based in Evanston, Illinois who has published widely on Victorian authorship and is currently in the last stage of completing a book on Punch for the University of Toronto Press; he is founder and manager of VICTORIA, the listserv for Victorian Studies.

• IllustrationsPhotograph of Charles Astor BristedForeword by Patrick LearyIntroduction by Christopher StrayBibliographyOriginal dedicationOriginal preface1. First Impressions of Cambridge [1840]2. Some Preliminaries, Rather Egotistical but Very Necessary [1835-9]3. Introduction to College Life4. The Cantab Language5. An American Student's First Impressions at Cambridge and on Cambridge6. Freshman Temptations and Experiences7. The Boat Race [1841]8. A Trinity Supper Party [1840]9. The May Examination [1841]10. The First Long Vacation [1841]11. The Second Year [1841-2]12. Third Year [1842-3]13. Private Tuition14. Long Vacation Amusements [1843]15. A Second Edition of Third Year [1843-4]16. The Scholarship Examination [1844]17. The Reading Party [1844]18. Sawdust Pudding with Ballad Sauce [1844]19. On the Razor's Edge [1844-5]20. How I Came To Take a Degree [1845]21. The Polloi and the Civil Law Classes22. The Classical Tripos [1845]23. A visit to Eton. English Public Schools24. Being Extinguished [1845]25. Reading for a Trinity Fellowship [1845]26. The study of Theology at Cambridge27. Recent Changes at Cambridge28. The Cambridge System of Education in its Intellectual Results29. Physical and Social Habits of Cambridge Men. Their Amusements, &c.30. On the State of Morals and Religion in Cambridge31. The Puseyite Disputes in Cambridge, and the Cambridge Camden Society32. Inferiority of our Colleges and Universities in Scholarship33. Supposed Counterbalancing Advantages of American Colleges34. The Advantages of Classical Studies, Particularly in Reference to the Youth of our Country35. What Can and Ought We To Do for our Colleges?Charles Astor Bristed 1820-1874: An annotated bibliographyIndex

Bristed’s account provides under a new title an unusual and frequently very funny snapshot of Victorian Cambridge.... His intelligence and wit, and the peculiar sympathy of his character, make this an invaluable reprint of a unique and accessible account.