Victorian Sensation : The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Language: English
Published by University of Chicago Press, 2003
- Softcover
- Used

Seller: Better World Books: West, Reno, NV, U.S.A.Better World Books: West
AbeBooks seller since March 14, 2016
Condition: Used - Fine
£ 10.57
Quantity: 2 available
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Used book that is in almost brand-new condition. May contain a remainder mark. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.
Seller Inventory # 57618696-75
- Title
- Victorian Sensation : The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
- Author
- Secord, James A.
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Publication year
- 2003
- Condition
- Fine
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0226744116
- ISBN 13
- 9780226744117
- Item weight
- 2.366 pounds
- Dimensions
- N/A
Fiction or philosophy, profound knowledge or shocking heresy? When Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation was published anonymously in 1844, it sparked one of the greatest sensations of the Victorian era. More than a hundred thousand readers were spellbound by its startling vision—an account of the world that extended from the formation of the solar system to the spiritual destiny of humanity. As gripping as a popular novel, Vestiges combined all the current scientific theories in fields ranging from astronomy and geology to psychology and economics. The book was banned, it was damned, it was hailed as the gospel for a new age. This is where our own public controversies about evolution began.
In a pioneering cultural history, James A. Secord uses the story of Vestiges to create a panoramic portrait of life in the early industrial era from the perspective of its readers. We join apprentices in a factory town as they debate the consequences of an evolutionary ancestry. We listen as Prince Albert reads aloud to Queen Victoria from a book that preachers denounced as blasphemy vomited from the mouth of Satan. And we watch as Charles Darwin turns its pages in the flea-ridden British Museum library, fearful for the fate of his own unpublished theory of evolution. Using secret letters, Secord reveals how Vestiges was written and how the anonymity of its author was maintained for forty years. He also takes us behind the scenes to a bustling world of publishers, printers, and booksellers to show how the furor over the book reflected the emerging industrial economy of print.
Beautifully written and based on painstaking research, Victorian Sensation offers a new approach to literary history, the history of reading, and the history of science. Profusely illustrated and full of fascinating stories, it is the most comprehensive account of the making and reception of a book (other than the Bible) ever attempted.
Winner of the 2002 Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society
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Better World Books: West
Reno, NV, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since March 14, 2016
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Better World Books is a for-profit, socially conscious business and a global online bookseller that collects and sells new and used books online, matching each purchase with a book donation. Each sale generates funds for literacy and education initiatives in the U.S., the UK, and around the world. Since its launch in 2003, Better World Books has raised over $35 million for libraries and literacy, donated over 38 million books, and reused or recycled more than 475 million books.
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