Afterthoughts: Nostalgia and Recollection

Abstract

Several concepts and definitions of nostalgia and recollection have emerged in the course of this book. They are catalogued here in the order in which they appear. Such a listing may offer the reader an opportunity to reflect more generally upon the experience of nostalgia. If one detaches these thoughts from their specific surroundings, what seems applicable to a particular instance — to events in the lives of Gaskell’s protagonists or to moments in the lives of Darwin, Pater, Ruskin, and Stevenson — can reverberate in the experience of others.