Victorian Literature and the Victorian Visual Imagination

by Carol T. Christ (Editor), John O. Jordan (Editor)

Nineteenth-century British culture frequently represented the eye as the preeminent organ of truth. These essays explore the relationship between the verbal and the visual in the Victorian imagination. They range broadly over topics that include the relationship of optical devices to the visual imagination, the role of photography in changing the conception of evidence and truth, the changing partnership between illustrator and novelist, and the ways in which literary texts represent the visual. Together they begin to construct a history of seeing in the Victorian period.

371 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Peter]

This is a very specialized book which presents the reader the opinions and insights of many experts in the field of Victorian Literature. The topics are wide-ranging and yet each is very specific in nature. Each chapter offers the reader a broad selection of graphics, photographs, and reproduced images to supplement and refer to the text. There is a very detailed bibliography to further support each article.

I admit that some of the articles were written to a very specific audience, and my understanding was limited. On the other hand, the chapter that compared Inspector Bucket from ‘Bleak House’ to Sherlock Holmes was riveting.

In my opinion this book is for those readers who are eager to move their general knowledge on a topic of Victorian Visual Imagination forward. It is not so much for a casual reader.