The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn

"The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn" by Henry Kingsley, is a story where Geoffrey Hamlyn looks back at the connections and experiences between the Thornton and Buckley families in the English countryside. The book is set during the mid-1800s and captures the social customs of that time. It focuses on Geoffrey's memories as he talks with Major Buckley and Captain Brentwood, starting a journey to document the entwined lives of people around them. As they share stories on a summer day in 1857 it starts a historical fiction that includes characters like John Thornton, a clergyman. The beginning of the book hints at emotional moments, like love and loss, and the impact of history on their lives, against a background of changing times.

Henry Kingsley was an English novelist, brother of the better-known Charles Kingsley. He was an early exponent of muscular Christianity in his 1859 novel The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn.