The Routledge Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century British Literature and Science

Tracing the continuities and trends in the complex relationship between literature and science in the long nineteenth century, this companion provides scholars with a comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date foundation for research in this field. In intellectual, material, and social terms, the transformation undergone by Western culture over the period was unprecedented, and many of the changes were grounded in the growth of science. Yet science was not a cultural monolith then any more than it is now, and its development was distinctive for competing worldviews. To cover the full range of literary engagements with science in the long nineteenth century, the companion consists 29 essays by experts in the field that explore how science affected different genres of writing, crucial social and intellectual contexts for the interactions between literature and science, and the importance of individual scientific disciplines and concepts within literary culture. Rounding out the volume are a synoptic introduction, an afterword by Gillian Beer, and a full bibliography organized by topic.

John Holmes is Professor of Victorian Literature and Culture at the University of Birmingham, UK, and Sharon Ruston is Professor of Romanticism at Lancaster University, UK.