Mechanism and the Novel: Science in the Narrative Process - Hardcover

Martha A. Turner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521443393 ISBN 13: 9780521443395

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Martha Turner's 1993 book examines the relationship between British fiction and the tradition of mechanistic science derived from Isaac Newton, and provides a bridge between the mechanical philosophy of the eighteenth century and present-day habits of thought. Tracing the evolution of the concept of mechanism among science writers and novelists of the past 200 years, it shows how the pre-mechanistic world of Pride and Prejudice and the relatively unproblematic empiricism of The Bride of Lammermoor were succeeded by the quandaries of Bleak House, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, and The Egoist, and how alternatives to the mechanistic tradition were worked out in The Secret Agent and Women in Love. Analysis of Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos: Archives identifies features of the tradition which still survive.

About this title

Review

"Turner's book is enjoyable to read, and offers many useful, thought-provoking readings of texts..." Victorian Studies

Book Description

This 1993 book makes an important contribution to the growing studies of science and literature. It examines the relationship between British fiction and the tradition of mechanistic science, tracing the evolution of the concept of mechanism through analysis of novels by Austen, Scott, Dickens, Meredith, Conrad, Lawrence, and Doris Lessing.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521443393
• ISBN 13: 9780521443395
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 212