Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Introduction. The Epistemology of Optics: Seeing Subjects, Modern Minds 1
4. Part I. Realism and the Visionary Eye: Balzac's Optics of Narration
5. Chapter 1. Second Sight and the Authorial chambre noire: Les Chouans, Louis Lambert 19
6. Chapter 2. "Tom her dans le phenomene ": Mterimages in La Maison Nucingen and Le Bal de Sceaux 33
7. Chapter 3. Alternative Optics: Seraphita, La Recherche de l'absolu, and La Peau de chagrin 48
8. Chapter 4. "Effets de lumiere," or a "Second" Second Sight: La Fille aux yeux d'or 59
9. Part II. Tenebrous Mfairs: Romans policiers and the Detecting Eye
10. Chapter 5. Cuvier, Helmholtz, and the Visual Logics of Deduction: Poe, Doyle, Gaboriau 85
11. Chapter 6. Learning to See: Monsieur Lecoq and Empiricist Theories of Vision 110
12. Chapter 7. Sealed Chambers and Open Eyes: Leroux's Mystere de la chambre jaune 137
13. Part III. Villiers, Verne, and Claretie: Toward a Fin-de-Siecle "Optogrammatology"
14. Chapter 8. Death and the Retina: Claire Lenoir, L 'Accusateur, and Les Freres Kip 155
15. Chapter 9. Optogram Fiction: Communication, Doubt, and the Fantastic 176
16. Chapter 10. Tropical Piercings: Nationalism, Atavism, and the Eye of the Corpse 193
17. Chapter 11. The Fin-de-Siecle Logic of the Mterimage: Hysteria, Hallucination, and Villiers's L'Eve future 206
18. Epilogue. The Afterimage of Reference: Optics and the nouveau roman 222
19. Notes 227
20. Index 261
21. Acknowledgments 271