Edward John Trelawny - Adventures of A Younger Son

Trelawny wrote Adventures of a younger son in Arcetti while staying in a room that he rented from Charles Armitage Brown. Brown was irritated that Trelawny burned furniture for firewood, but agreed to copy edit the book for him. He began work on the book in 1829 but did not finish it until 1831. He was likely dyslexic and his draft required extensive editing by Brown.

Trelawny then sent his draft to Mary Shelley to arrange publication under the title A Man's Life. Mary insisted on removing some passages from the book that could be viewed as offensive. He decided to publish it anonymously, but it was expected that many would be able to guess his identity. He did not earn as much money from the publisher as he had hoped. In Autumn 1831 his book was finally published.

In 1831 Byron's doctor wrote a critical account of Trelawny. He responded with a furious attack on the doctor, part of which implied that he was gay. His book was published anonymously but within a month it had become well known that he was the author. Most contemporary reviewers accepted the book as factual, but subsequent scholarship has demonstrated that most of the book is no more than a fictional account of his life. Writing in the Keats-Shelley Journal of 1956, Anne Hill concluded that "the proportion of truth to fiction in Adventures of a younger son turns out to be small, not more than one tenth." His biography has since been translated into French, German, Swedish, and Gaelic. Trelawny returned to England in 1832 and was famous and well received by London society and was treated like a hero. He began meeting with Godwin regularly.