Mill's autobiography deals primarily with the life of the mind—but it is a mind which 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 which 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 which 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 relevance and a final testament to a rare and luminous intelligence.