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
Results 1-5 of 90
Page
... nineteenth - century popular science , Romantic poetry , and the mediaeval literatures of Iceland and Ireland . The University of Chicago Press , Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press , Ltd. , London 2007 by The University of ...
... nineteenth - century popular science , Romantic poetry , and the mediaeval literatures of Iceland and Ireland . The University of Chicago Press , Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press , Ltd. , London 2007 by The University of ...
Page
... nineteenth-century books and photographs from various friends and family members, which have helped my work in a number of ways. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with the University of Chicago Press. Particular thanks are ...
... nineteenth-century books and photographs from various friends and family members, which have helped my work in a number of ways. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with the University of Chicago Press. Particular thanks are ...
Page
... centuries of sacred - historical tra- dition , of which John Milton's epic poem of Creation and Fall , Paradise Lost ... nineteenth - century scientific imagination see Beer 1983 , 29–36 ; 1996 , 210–15 . 6. Paradise Lost I.26 ( Milton ...
... centuries of sacred - historical tra- dition , of which John Milton's epic poem of Creation and Fall , Paradise Lost ... nineteenth - century scientific imagination see Beer 1983 , 29–36 ; 1996 , 210–15 . 6. Paradise Lost I.26 ( Milton ...
Page
... nineteenth-century geological writings, for all that they were bestsellers in their day. Their poetic passages may seem like islands of evocative prose separated by oceans of fossil descriptions, lengthy discussions of strata, lists of ...
... nineteenth-century geological writings, for all that they were bestsellers in their day. Their poetic passages may seem like islands of evocative prose separated by oceans of fossil descriptions, lengthy discussions of strata, lists of ...
Page
... nineteenth-century public culture. Literary criticism might seem remote from the interests of today's his- torian; even among literary scholars, the aesthetic qualities of a piece of writing are often treated as a trivial affair ...
... nineteenth-century public culture. Literary criticism might seem remote from the interests of today's his- torian; even among literary scholars, the aesthetic qualities of a piece of writing are often treated as a trivial affair ...
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