Useful Knowledge: The Victorians, Morality, and the March of IntellectNineteenth-century England witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number of publications and institutions devoted to the creation and the dissemination of knowledge: encyclopedias, scientific periodicals, instruction manuals, scientific societies, children’s literature, mechanics’ institutes, museums of natural history, and lending libraries. In Useful Knowledge Alan Rauch presents a social, cultural, and literary history of this new knowledge industry and traces its relationships within nineteenth-century literature, ending with its eventual confrontation with Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. Rauch discusses both the influence and the ideology of knowledge in terms of how it affected nineteenth-century anxieties about moral responsibility and religious beliefs. Drawing on a wide array of literary, scientific, and popular works of the period, the book focusses on the growing importance of scientific knowledge and its impact on Victorian culture. From discussions of Jane Webb Loudon’s The Mummy! and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor, Charles Kingsley’s Alton Locke, and George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss, Rauch paints a fascinating picture of nineteenth-century culture and addresses issues related to the proliferation of knowledge and the moral issues of this time period. Useful Knowledge touches on social and cultural anxieties that offer both historical and contemporary insights on our ongoing preoccupation with knowledge. Useful Knowledge will appeal to readers interested in nineteenth century history, literature, culture, the mediation of knowledge, and the history of science. |
Contents
Food for Thought The Dissemination of Knowledge in the Early Nineteenth Century | 22 |
Science in the Popular Novel Jane Webb Loudons The Mummy | 60 |
The Monstrous Body of Knowledge Mary Shelleys Frankenstein | 96 |
Lessons Learned in Class Charlotte Brontës The Professor | 129 |
The Tailor Transformed Charles Kingsleys Alton Locke | 164 |
Other editions - View all
Useful Knowledge: The Victorians, Morality, and the March of Intellect Alan Rauch Limited preview - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
Aldini Alton Locke argues Britannica Cambridge University Press character Charles Kingsley Charlotte Brontë Chartist Chicago Press children's literature concern contemporary context creature Crimsworth culture Darwin death Dictionary Discourse edge Edinburgh Edric encyclopedia Encyclopédie England English Essays fact female fiction figure Floss Frances Franken Frankenstein galvanism George Eliot George Levine growth of knowledge Harmondsworth human Hunsden ideas impact important improvement individual intellectual interest Jane Jane Webb Loudon John kind Kingsley's knowl knowledge texts learning Letters literary London Maggie Mary Shelley Mill mind monster moral mother Mummy narrative natural history natural theology notion novel Oxford University Press Patrick Brontë Penguin Percy Percy Shelley Philosophy phrenology political popular Professor readers reading religion responsibility Robert Sarah Trimmer scientific scientist SDUK sense Shelley's social society spirit suggest Thomas Thomas Telford tion traditional transformation underscores understanding Victor Victorian William writes York young