Mill's autobiography deals with but one part of a life, the life of the mind-but a mind that ranks as one of the most remarkable and significant of the nineteenth century. The book memorably depicts the emergence of a brilliant child prodigy, the product of an extraordinary education that both hastened his development and brought him to the brink of suicide by the age of twenty-one; illumined with equal clarity is the story of John Stuart Mill's renewed commitment to life, and of the further conflicts that marked his long evolution toward maturity as a major philosopher and social thinker. Superb in its dispassionate objectivity, the Autobiography stands as a work of enduring stature and relevance, the final testament of a rare and luminous intelligence.
