Constance Naden : scientist, philosopher, poet /
"Constance Naden (1858-89) is a unique Victorian voice. In this book, the first full-length critical account of her life and works, Clare Stainthorp brings into focus the reciprocal nature of Naden's poetry, philosophical essays, and scientific studies. The development of Naden's thin...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford ; New York :
Peter Lang,
[2019]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Series: | Writing and culture in the long nineteenth century ;
8. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "Constance Naden (1858-89) is a unique Victorian voice. In this book, the first full-length critical account of her life and works, Clare Stainthorp brings into focus the reciprocal nature of Naden's poetry, philosophical essays, and scientific studies. The development of Naden's thinking from precocious Unitarian school girl to independent freethinking young woman is explored in detail, with newly-discovered unpublished poems and notes from her adolescence shedding important light upon this transition. Close-readings of Naden's wide-ranging corpus of poetry and prose trace her commitment to an interdisciplinary world-scheme that sought unity in diversity. This book demonstrates how a rigorous scientific education, a thorough engagement with poetry and philosophy of the long nineteenth century, an involvement with the Victorian radical atheist movement, and a comic sensibility each shaped Naden's intellectual achievements. Naden sought to show how the light of reason is made even brighter by the spark of poetic creation, and how the imagination is as much a tool of the scientist and philosopher as the artist. Taking a comprehensive approach to this complex and overlooked figure in Victorian Literature and Science, Stainthorp demonstrates how Naden's texts provide a new and important vantage point from which to consider synthetic thinking as a productive and creative force within nineteenth-century intellectual culture"-- |
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| Physical Description: | viii, 295 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-284) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781788741477 1788741471 |