Charles Darwin and Victorian visual culture /
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. Jonathan Smith explains how Darwin ma...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge ; New York :
Cambridge University Press,
2006.
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| Series: | Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | 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. 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 analyze 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 color 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. |
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| Physical Description: | xxiii, 349 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780521856904 0521856906 |