Measuring the Infinite

Richard Jefferies (1848-87) divides opinion like no other writer of his generation.   Most readers see him as a pivotal figure in the development of English language prose writing about nature and rural life.   Others regard him as the prophet of a new age.   After his death a fierce debate raged over the proposal to erect a memorial to Jefferies in Salisbury Cathedral.   Was he a Christian, an atheist, or something worse?   Whatever he had been in life, had he made a last-minute recantation on his death-bed?   This paper sets out to address those questions by examining Jefferies's life and the key texts, primarily his so-called autobiography The Story of my Heart (1883).