Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.

Secord, James:

ISBN 10: 0226744108 / ISBN 13: 9780226744100

Published by Chicago University Press, 2001

About this Item

xx 624p large hardback, green illustrated dustjacket as new, excellent copy, no names, no stamps, no library markings Language: English.

Seller Inventory # 243306

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.
• Publisher: Chicago University Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226744108
• ISBN 13: 9780226744100
• Binding: Hardback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • History of Science

About this title

Synopsis

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. Thousands of 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. The book was banned, it was damned, it was hailed as the gospel for a new age. In this cultural history, James 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we watch as Charles Darwin turns its pages in the flea-ridden British Museum library, fearful for the fate of his own unpublished theory of evolution.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 40 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.

About the Author

James A. Secord is Reader in the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. He is author of, among others, Controversy in Victorian Geology, editor of the Chicago edition of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation and Other Evolutionary Writings, and coeditor of Cultures of Natural History.