The Oxford Companion to English Literature | Pater, Walter Horatio
Pater, Walter
Horatio
(
1839
–
94
), born in Stepney, the son of a surgeon who died in
1842
; his mother died in
1854
. From
1869
he lived with his unmarried sisters Hester and Clara (one of the founders of Somerville College, Oxford). After a childhood in rural Enfield, he was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and The Queen's College, Oxford, where his interests in Hellenism, pre-Socratic and German philosophy, European art and literature were encouraged, variously, by
B.
Jowett
,
W.
W.
Capes
, and
M.
Arnold
. He became a fellow of Brasenose in
1864
; his Oxford career was marked by personal and professional controversies. Jowett blocked a university appointment when he suspected
Pater's
involvement with a student; colleagues attacked the ‘Conclusion’ to Studies in the History of the Renaissance (
1873
) because it postulated the relativity of existence (‘that strange, perpetual, weaving...
[The entire page is 617 words long]
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