Cover
Title
Copyright
CONTENTS
List of figures
Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction: literature and science in the nineteenth century
PART I Contexts
1 Science, empire and globalization in the nineteenth century
2 Scientific cultures and institutions
3 Science and religion
4 Women and science
PART II Genres
5 The novel as observation and experiment
6 From Gothic to science fiction
7 Poetry and science
8 Scientific literary criticism
9 Writing the scientist: biography and autobiography
10 Writing science: scientific prose
11 Science for the general reader
12 Science in the periodical press
13 Science for children
14 Staging science
PART III Mathematical and physical sciences
15 Mathematics
16 Astronomy
17 Geology
18 Chemistry
19 Thermodynamics
20 Electricity
21 Technology
PART IV Biological and human sciences
22 Natural history, evolution and ecology: the biological sciences
23 Archaeology and anthropology
24 Medical research
25 Sciences of the mind
26 Sexology
27 Occult sciences
Afterword
Index

Tracing the continuities and trends in the complex relationship between literature and science in the long nineteenth century, this companion provides scholars with a comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date foundation for research in this field. In intellectual, material, and social terms, the transformation undergone by Western culture over the period was unprecedented. Many of these changes were grounded in the growth of science. Yet science was not a cultural monolith then any more than it is now, and its development was shaped by competing worldviews. To cover the full range of literary engagements with science in the long nineteenth century, the companion consists of 27 essays by experts in the field that explore crucial social and intellectual contexts for the interactions between literature and science, how science affected different genres of writing, and the importance of individual scientific disciplines and concepts within literary culture. Each chapter has its own extensive bibliography.