Introduction: Structuring the criticism
pt. 1. Traditional figures: Augustinian figures
Spiritual figures
Romantic figures
pt. 2. The figures of the prophets: Carlyle's Sartor: the open secret
Mill's Autobiography: two deities
Newman's Apologia: alone with God
Ruskin's Praeteria: the enclosed garden
pt. 3. The fictions of autobiographical fiction: David Copperfield: experiments in autobiography
Villette: pilgrim of the imagination
The mill on the Floss: conversion to tragedy
The way of all flesh: disfiguring the figures
Turning figures
pt. 4. The lifelong autobiography: The autobiography of William Yeats Butler: perfection of the life
The memoirs of George Sherston: Sassoon's perpetual pilgrimage
Mirror in my house: a lion among the Christians
Muir's Autobiography: twice more in Eden
pt. 5. Modern autobiographical fiction: Sons and lovers: a prophet in the making
A portrait of the artist: the conventions convened
Pilgrimage: the eternal autobiographical moment
"To return to St. Ives": Woolf's autobiographical writings
Envoi: life as narrative.