Charles Darwin and Victorian Visual Culture
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Charles Darwin and Victorian Visual Culture by Jonathan Smith
Although The Origin of Species contained just a single visual illustration, Charles Darwin's other books, from his monograph on barnacles in the early 1850s to his volume on earthworms in 1881, were copiously illustrated by well-known artists and engravers. In this 2006 book, Jonathan Smith explains how Darwin managed to illustrate the unillustratable - his theories of natural selection - by manipulating and modifying the visual conventions of natural history, using images to support the claims made in his texts. Moreover, Smith looks outward to analyse the relationships between Darwin's illustrations and Victorian visual culture, especially the late-Victorian debates about aesthetics, and shows how Darwin's evolutionary explanation of beauty, based on his observations of colour and the visual in nature, were a direct challenge to the aesthetics of John Ruskin. The many illustrations reproduced here enhance this fascinating study of a little known aspect of Darwin's lasting influence on literature, art and culture.
'… a rewarding journey through Darwin's less well-known but richly illustrated works … the range of illustrations is superb' The Times Literary Supplement
'In the texture of its writing, the meticulousness of its scholarship, and the freshness of its analysis, Jonathan Smith's Charles Darwin and Victorian Visual Culture seems an understated and modest book. But it lives up to the ambition of its title and deserves to be recognised, in addition, as one of the finest (and most careful) cultural studies of Darwin that the growing Darwin industry has produced. This is a major book, one of the very few studies of Darwin that attends to the entire range of his writing. By virtue of what I would like to think of as Darwinian attention to the smallest details, it manages to read Darwin into his culture better than almost any other previous work.' George Levine, Rutgers University
'Overall, Voss's analysis of Darwin's images is studded throughout with insights.' NTM
'In the texture of its writing, the meticulousness of its scholarship, and the freshness of its analysis, Jonathan Smith's Charles Darwin and Victorian Visual Culture seems an understated and modest book. But it lives up to the ambition of its title and deserves to be recognised, in addition, as one of the finest (and most careful) cultural studies of Darwin that the growing Darwin industry has produced. This is a major book, one of the very few studies of Darwin that attends to the entire range of his writing. By virtue of what I would like to think of as Darwinian attention to the smallest details, it manages to read Darwin into his culture better than almost any other previous work.' George Levine, Rutgers University
'Overall, Voss's analysis of Darwin's images is studded throughout with insights.' NTM
Jonathan Smith is Professor of English at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780521135795 |
| ISBN 10 | 0521135796 |
| Title | Charles Darwin and Victorian Visual Culture |
| Author | Jonathan Smith |
| Series | Cambridge Studies In Nineteenth-Century Literature And Culture |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Year published | 2009-05-14 |
| Number of pages | 378 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |