The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856At the turn of the nineteenth century, geology—and its claims that the earth had a long and colorful prehuman history—was widely dismissedasdangerous nonsense. But just fifty years later, it was the most celebrated of Victorian sciences. Ralph O’Connor tracks the astonishing growth of geology’s prestige in Britain, exploring how a new geohistory far more alluring than the standard six days of Creation was assembled and sold to the wider Bible-reading public. Shrewd science-writers, O’Connor shows, marketed spectacular visions of past worlds, piquing the public imagination with glimpses of man-eating mammoths, talking dinosaurs, and sea-dragons spawned by Satan himself. These authors—including men of science, women, clergymen, biblical literalists, hack writers, blackmailers, and prophets—borrowed freely from the Bible, modern poetry, and the urban entertainment industry, creating new forms of literature in order to transport their readers into a vanished and alien past. In exploring the use of poetry and spectacle in the promotion of popular science, O’Connor proves that geology’s success owed much to the literary techniques of its authors. An innovative blend of the history of science, literary criticism, book history, and visual culture, The Earth on Show rethinks the relationship between science and literature in the nineteenth century. |
From inside the book
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... : New Mythologies of the Ancient Earth Appendix: Currencies, and Sizes of Books 433 453 Works Cited 455 Credits 491 Index 493 Plates follow page 370. Acknowledgements Since I began working on this project eight years Contents.
... : New Mythologies of the Ancient Earth Appendix: Currencies, and Sizes of Books 433 453 Works Cited 455 Credits 491 Index 493 Plates follow page 370. Acknowledgements Since I began working on this project eight years Contents.
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... ancient earth . Forgan ( 1994 and 1999 ) and Yanni ( 1999 ) have examined the architecture of geological display . J. Secord ( 2000a , 437–70 ) has explored cosmological works of the 1840s and 1850s in relation to popular spectacle ...
... ancient earth . Forgan ( 1994 and 1999 ) and Yanni ( 1999 ) have examined the architecture of geological display . J. Secord ( 2000a , 437–70 ) has explored cosmological works of the 1840s and 1850s in relation to popular spectacle ...
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... ancient earth was stitched together with strands from all ages: the dreams and visions of Dante and Virgil rubbed shoulders with the refined topographical verse of James Thomson, and monsters straight out of Hieronymus Bosch mingled ...
... ancient earth was stitched together with strands from all ages: the dreams and visions of Dante and Virgil rubbed shoulders with the refined topographical verse of James Thomson, and monsters straight out of Hieronymus Bosch mingled ...
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... ancient a looking stone then as in the present late age of the world.” His imagination soars away in a widening spiral which draws in the isle- studded seascapes of his journey—until language finally fails, and the bare rock comes back ...
... ancient a looking stone then as in the present late age of the world.” His imagination soars away in a widening spiral which draws in the isle- studded seascapes of his journey—until language finally fails, and the bare rock comes back ...
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... ancient earth : the words and authority of geology's better - known literary figures were routinely borrowed by other writers to do this work 18. J. Secord 2000a . On the problems involved in constructing a reception history which is ...
... ancient earth : the words and authority of geology's better - known literary figures were routinely borrowed by other writers to do this work 18. J. Secord 2000a . On the problems involved in constructing a reception history which is ...
Contents
PART II STAGING THE SHOW | |
New Mythologies of the Ancient Earth | |
Currencies and Sizes of Books | |
Works Cited | |
Credits | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856 Ralph O'Connor No preview available - 2008 |
The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856 Ralph O'Connor No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic ancient earth animals Anon antediluvian audience authority Bakewell biblical bones Bridgewater Treatise British Buckland Byron Cain Cambridge cave Creation culture Cuvier Deluge diorama display drama earth history Edinburgh edition Eidophusikon engravings extinct fiction fossil frontispiece Genesis genres geologists geology geology’s Gideon Mantell guidebook Hawkins Hugh Miller hyaenas ichthyosaur Iguanodon imagination John landscape lectures literal literalist literary literature London Lyell Lyme Regis mammoth Mantell Mantell's Martin Megalosaurus Miller Milton monsters Museum narrative Natural History natural theology nineteenth century ODNB Old Red Sandstone Oxford panorama Paradise Lost past period philosophical pictorial picture plesiosaur poem poet poetic poetry popular present prose pterodactyle quotation quoted readers Rennie reptiles restorations rhetoric romance Rudwick Rupke saurians scene scientific Secord Sommer spectacle story sublime theatre theatrical theories tion title-page Topham treatise University Press verse Victorian virtual tourism vision visual William William Buckland words writing