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The Resource The divine in the commonplace : reverent natural history and the novel in Britain, Amy M. King

The divine in the commonplace : reverent natural history and the novel in Britain, Amy M. King

Creator
Author
Summary
  • "Realism has long been associated with the secular, but in early nineteenth-century England a realist genre existed that was highly theological: popular natural histories informed by natural theology. The Divine in the Commonplace explores the 'reverent empiricism' of English natural history and how it conceives observation and description as a kind of devotion or act of reverence. Focusing on the texts of popular natural historians, especially seashore naturalists, Amy M. King puts these in conversation with English provincial realist novelists including Austen, Gaskell, Eliot and Trollope. She argues that English provincial novel has a 'reverent form' as a result of its connection to the practices and representational strategies of natural history writing in this period, which was both literary, empirical and reverent. This book will appeal to students and scholars of nineteenth-century literature, science historians and those interested in interdisciplinary connections between pre-Darwinian natural history, religion and literature"--
  • "This book will show how British natural history writing in this period blended scientific observation with rhetoric that in some instances was overtly religious and others more generally Romantic. The popular natural historian Rev. J.G. Wood urged his readers to look on the abhorrent in nature (rats, snakes, spiders, and toads) with "a more reverent eye," while G.H. Lewes in Seaside Studies (1856) asserted that "in direct contact with nature we not only learn reverence by having our own insignificance forced on us, but we learn more and more appreciate the Infinity on all sides." The orientation towards the natural world evidenced by the narrative might best be described as reverent: the natural world is clearly venerated as exalted and superior, such that heightened attention to it seems a natural function of that respect." --
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xii, 297 pages
Contents
  • Introduction: natural history, the theology of nature, and the novel
  • 1. Reverent natural history, the sketch, and the novel: modes of English realism in White, Mitford, and Austen
  • 2. Early Victorian natural history: reverent empiricism and the aesthetic of the commonplace
  • 3. The formal realism of reverent natural history: tide-pools, aquaria and the seashore natural histories of P.H. Gosse and G.H. Lewes
  • 4. Reverence at the seashore: seashore natural history, Charles Kingsley's Two Years Ago (1855), and Margaret Gatty's Parables from Nature (1855)
  • 5. Seeing the divine in the commonplace: George Eliot's paranaturalist realism, 1856-1859
  • 6. Elizabeth Gaskell's everyday: Reverent form and natural theology in Sylvia's Lovers (1863) and Wives and Daughters (1866)
  • Epilogue: Barsetshire via Selborne: Anthony Trollope's The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867)
Isbn
9781108492959
Instance
Label
The divine in the commonplace : reverent natural history and the novel in Britain
Title
The divine in the commonplace
Title remainder
reverent natural history and the novel in Britain
Statement of responsibility
Amy M. King
Title variation
Reverent natural history and the novel in Britain
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
  • "Realism has long been associated with the secular, but in early nineteenth-century England a realist genre existed that was highly theological: popular natural histories informed by natural theology. The Divine in the Commonplace explores the 'reverent empiricism' of English natural history and how it conceives observation and description as a kind of devotion or act of reverence. Focusing on the texts of popular natural historians, especially seashore naturalists, Amy M. King puts these in conversation with English provincial realist novelists including Austen, Gaskell, Eliot and Trollope. She argues that English provincial novel has a 'reverent form' as a result of its connection to the practices and representational strategies of natural history writing in this period, which was both literary, empirical and reverent. This book will appeal to students and scholars of nineteenth-century literature, science historians and those interested in interdisciplinary connections between pre-Darwinian natural history, religion and literature"--
  • "This book will show how British natural history writing in this period blended scientific observation with rhetoric that in some instances was overtly religious and others more generally Romantic. The popular natural historian Rev. J.G. Wood urged his readers to look on the abhorrent in nature (rats, snakes, spiders, and toads) with "a more reverent eye," while G.H. Lewes in Seaside Studies (1856) asserted that "in direct contact with nature we not only learn reverence by having our own insignificance forced on us, but we learn more and more appreciate the Infinity on all sides." The orientation towards the natural world evidenced by the narrative might best be described as reverent: the natural world is clearly venerated as exalted and superior, such that heightened attention to it seems a natural function of that respect." --
Member of
Assigning source
  • Provided by publisher
  • Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
King, Amy M.
Dewey number
823/.80936
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • maps
Index
index present
LC call number
PR468.N3
LC item number
K56 2019
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • English literature
  • English fiction
  • Nature in literature
  • Natural history in literature
  • Nature
  • Literature and science
  • LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
  • English fiction
  • English literature
  • Literature and science
  • Natural history in literature
  • Nature in literature
  • Nature
  • Great Britain
  • Natur
  • Naturgeschichte
  • Religion
  • Roman
  • Großbritannien
Label
The divine in the commonplace : reverent natural history and the novel in Britain, Amy M. King
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
  • text
  • still image
  • cartographic image
Content type code
  • txt
  • sti
  • cri
Content type MARC source
  • rdacontent
  • rdacontent
  • rdacontent
Contents
Introduction: natural history, the theology of nature, and the novel -- 1. Reverent natural history, the sketch, and the novel: modes of English realism in White, Mitford, and Austen -- 2. Early Victorian natural history: reverent empiricism and the aesthetic of the commonplace -- 3. The formal realism of reverent natural history: tide-pools, aquaria and the seashore natural histories of P.H. Gosse and G.H. Lewes -- 4. Reverence at the seashore: seashore natural history, Charles Kingsley's Two Years Ago (1855), and Margaret Gatty's Parables from Nature (1855) -- 5. Seeing the divine in the commonplace: George Eliot's paranaturalist realism, 1856-1859 -- 6. Elizabeth Gaskell's everyday: Reverent form and natural theology in Sylvia's Lovers (1863) and Wives and Daughters (1866) -- Epilogue: Barsetshire via Selborne: Anthony Trollope's The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867)
Control code
1096215049
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xii, 297 pages
Isbn
9781108492959
Lccn
2019008500
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, maps
System control number
(OCoLC)1096215049
Label
The divine in the commonplace : reverent natural history and the novel in Britain, Amy M. King
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
  • text
  • still image
  • cartographic image
Content type code
  • txt
  • sti
  • cri
Content type MARC source
  • rdacontent
  • rdacontent
  • rdacontent
Contents
Introduction: natural history, the theology of nature, and the novel -- 1. Reverent natural history, the sketch, and the novel: modes of English realism in White, Mitford, and Austen -- 2. Early Victorian natural history: reverent empiricism and the aesthetic of the commonplace -- 3. The formal realism of reverent natural history: tide-pools, aquaria and the seashore natural histories of P.H. Gosse and G.H. Lewes -- 4. Reverence at the seashore: seashore natural history, Charles Kingsley's Two Years Ago (1855), and Margaret Gatty's Parables from Nature (1855) -- 5. Seeing the divine in the commonplace: George Eliot's paranaturalist realism, 1856-1859 -- 6. Elizabeth Gaskell's everyday: Reverent form and natural theology in Sylvia's Lovers (1863) and Wives and Daughters (1866) -- Epilogue: Barsetshire via Selborne: Anthony Trollope's The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867)
Control code
1096215049
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xii, 297 pages
Isbn
9781108492959
Lccn
2019008500
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, maps
System control number
(OCoLC)1096215049

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