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1. Science and the Victorian Novel

  • Phillip Mallett
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Handbook of the English Novel, 1830–1900
This chapter is in the book Handbook of the English Novel, 1830–1900

Abstract

Scientific concepts and discoveries permeated Victorian culture at every level, and readers of fiction grew accustomed to finding ideas derived from geology, astronomy and physics, about time, space, and entropy, jostling against others drawn from biology, psychology, or physiology. For the most part, scientists and novelists shared a common language and common convictions, including the regularity of law, the unity of the self, and the belief that observation and reason, aided by the imagination, could provide a plausible account of the world, and of humanity’s place in it. This commonality was particularly evident in evolutionary theory, which like the novel was concerned with time and change, but it was also apparent in mental science, both in older but still influential theories such as physiognomy and phrenology, and in later developments in the study of borderland states such as trance or fever, and of the split or multiple personality. Over the century, however, confidence in the power of science to interpret the world was chastened by an increasing awareness that humanity was not so much master of what it surveyed, as itself subject to the laws science was seeking to discover.

Abstract

Scientific concepts and discoveries permeated Victorian culture at every level, and readers of fiction grew accustomed to finding ideas derived from geology, astronomy and physics, about time, space, and entropy, jostling against others drawn from biology, psychology, or physiology. For the most part, scientists and novelists shared a common language and common convictions, including the regularity of law, the unity of the self, and the belief that observation and reason, aided by the imagination, could provide a plausible account of the world, and of humanity’s place in it. This commonality was particularly evident in evolutionary theory, which like the novel was concerned with time and change, but it was also apparent in mental science, both in older but still influential theories such as physiognomy and phrenology, and in later developments in the study of borderland states such as trance or fever, and of the split or multiple personality. Over the century, however, confidence in the power of science to interpret the world was chastened by an increasing awareness that humanity was not so much master of what it surveyed, as itself subject to the laws science was seeking to discover.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Metamorphoses in English Culture and the Novel, 1830–1900: An Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Science and the Victorian Novel 23
  7. 2. Remediating Nineteenth-Century Narrative 51
  8. 3. God on the Wane? The Victorian Novel and Religion 71
  9. 4. Genres and Poetology: The Novel and the Way towards Aesthetic Self-Consciousness 87
  10. 5. The Art of Novel Writing: Victorian Theories 107
  11. 6. Victorian Gender Relations and the Novel 121
  12. 7. Empire – Economy – Materiality 149
  13. Part II: Close Readings
  14. 8. Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834) 173
  15. 9. Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) 189
  16. 10. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847) 205
  17. 11. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) 221
  18. 12. Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1847) 237
  19. 13. William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847–1848) 253
  20. 14. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Mary Barton (1848) 273
  21. 15. Charles Kingsley, Yeast: A Problem (1851) 289
  22. 16. Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853) 305
  23. 17. Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne (1858) 321
  24. 18. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) 337
  25. 19. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) 351
  26. 20. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868) 367
  27. 21. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race (1871) 381
  28. 22. George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871–1872; 1874) 397
  29. 23. George Meredith, The Egoist (1879) 415
  30. 24. Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean (1885) 431
  31. 25. Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) 445
  32. 26. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) 461
  33. 27. Sarah Grand, The Heavenly Twins (1893) 479
  34. 28. George Moore, Esther Waters (1894) 495
  35. 29. Mona Caird, The Daughters of Danaus (1894) 511
  36. 30. Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895) 529
  37. 31. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895) 547
  38. 32. Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897) 565
  39. 33. Henry James, What Maisie Knew (1897) 581
  40. 34. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900) 597
  41. 35. Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1900–1901) 613
  42. 36. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903) 629
  43. Index of Subjects 645
  44. Index of Names 659
  45. List of Contributors 675
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110376715-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Metamorphoses in English Culture and the Novel, 1830–1900: An Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Science and the Victorian Novel 23
  7. 2. Remediating Nineteenth-Century Narrative 51
  8. 3. God on the Wane? The Victorian Novel and Religion 71
  9. 4. Genres and Poetology: The Novel and the Way towards Aesthetic Self-Consciousness 87
  10. 5. The Art of Novel Writing: Victorian Theories 107
  11. 6. Victorian Gender Relations and the Novel 121
  12. 7. Empire – Economy – Materiality 149
  13. Part II: Close Readings
  14. 8. Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834) 173
  15. 9. Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) 189
  16. 10. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847) 205
  17. 11. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) 221
  18. 12. Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1847) 237
  19. 13. William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1847–1848) 253
  20. 14. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Mary Barton (1848) 273
  21. 15. Charles Kingsley, Yeast: A Problem (1851) 289
  22. 16. Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853) 305
  23. 17. Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne (1858) 321
  24. 18. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) 337
  25. 19. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) 351
  26. 20. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868) 367
  27. 21. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race (1871) 381
  28. 22. George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871–1872; 1874) 397
  29. 23. George Meredith, The Egoist (1879) 415
  30. 24. Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean (1885) 431
  31. 25. Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) 445
  32. 26. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) 461
  33. 27. Sarah Grand, The Heavenly Twins (1893) 479
  34. 28. George Moore, Esther Waters (1894) 495
  35. 29. Mona Caird, The Daughters of Danaus (1894) 511
  36. 30. Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895) 529
  37. 31. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895) 547
  38. 32. Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897) 565
  39. 33. Henry James, What Maisie Knew (1897) 581
  40. 34. Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900) 597
  41. 35. Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1900–1901) 613
  42. 36. Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903) 629
  43. Index of Subjects 645
  44. Index of Names 659
  45. List of Contributors 675
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