On 15 May 1820, just shy of his fourteenth birthday, John Stuart Mill left London for a holiday in France at the invitation of Samuel Bentham, younger brother of Jeremy Bentham. Carrying a letter of introduction, he first spent almost two weeks in the Paris home of Jean-Baptiste Say, and then left for the south of France, where his holiday and his serious study began—private lessons in mathematics, French, and fencing, then later botany and open lectures at Montpellier University in zoology, logic, and other subjects. The planned six months stretched to a year at the request of Mrs. Bentham. At the end of April 1821, he again spent time with Say, then Joseph Lowe, before returning to England in July 1821.

Mill remembered his year in France, and the friendships he developed there, with great fondness. He valued his “familiar knowledge” of the French language and ordinary French literature. More importantly, the time spent in France allowed him to escape, he believed, the “error always prevalent in England … of judging universal questions by a merely English standard.” Best of all, though, was the introduction to a way of life far removed from the driving educational program of his father, “having breathed for a whole year the free and genial atmosphere of Continental life” (Mill Reference Mill, Robson and Stillinger1981, pp. 59, 63). His introduction to French politics deepened over the years, and his fondness for France and its citizens drew him back time and again.

This was a foundational year for young Mill, both emotionally and intellectually, and consequently it has been the subject of scholarly interest since Mill singled it out himself in his Autobiography. In February 2001, the Kwansei Gakuin University Library purchased a notebook consisting of diary entries dated 20 July to 15 September 1820, along with miscellaneous notes. For the most part, this period is well documented. The British Library has, in its collection, a journal of Mill’s visit to France, and St. Andrews University Library has another notebook, both of which were used by Anna Mill to construct John Mill’s Boyhood Visit to France, being a journal and notebook written by John Stuart Mill in France, 1820–21 (1960). The Kwansei Gakuin notebook, however, is unique in two ways: first, it includes entries for the period 3–9 August 1820 that are missing from the journal in the British Library and the notebook in the St. Andrews Library collection; and, second, the entry for 10 August in the St. Andrews notebook is written in French, while the Kwansei Gakuin entry for the same day is written in English, and the entry for 11 August at St. Andrews is written in French, while the Kwansei Gakuin entry is half in English and half in French. The editor concludes that Mill originally made notes and corrections in French in the notebook purchased by Kwansei Gakuin, from which he made a fair copy that constitutes the St. Andrews notebook. The journal in the British Library is based on these.

This volume consists of four parts. First, there is a brief introduction and editorial note. Second, the Kwansei Gakuin notebook is reproduced in facsimile. Third, it is transcribed with annotations, and, finally, there is an appendix. The introduction claims this book is published to fulfill three goals. First, it reproduces the entries for 3–9 August 1820, which have been unknown until now. Second, it “present[s] a picture of John S. Mill’s life in this week,” during which he apparently studied French, chemistry, zoology, metaphysics, logic, mathematics, and other things, much as he had been doing before 3 August and would continue to do after 9 August. Third, it is claimed that “the book presents a complete version of John S. Mill’s sorjourn [sic] in France (1820–21)” (p. ii).

Anyone who spends time in archives will feel the familiar excitement of opening the facsimile edition and seeing the handwriting of the subject of interest, shortly followed by the frustration of not being able to read much of it. This edition has the advantage of a transcription and annotation of the notebook, for which we owe the editor, Takutoshi Inoue, a debt. However, I confess to finding little in the notebook that enriches the story of Mill’s boyhood visit to France beyond the version of it we get from Mill’s own Autobiography, Anna Mill’s study, and the editorial notes in the Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, particularly the Autobiography and Volume XX, Essays on French History and Historians. Moreover, the edition itself is marred by proofreading errors that detract from what is otherwise a very nicely produced volume.