Wordsworth and the Geologists

by John Wyatt

Overview

Examination of the links between literary history and science provides valuable new insights for scholars across a range of disciplines. John Wyatt explores the unexpectedly close relationship between William Wordsworth and a group of scientists in the formative years of the new science of geology. Wyatt's study of this personal and intellectual friendship challenges the simplistic opposition between Romantic-literary and scientific-materialist cultures, and shows how discourses were affected by the network of influences between poetry and geology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521472593
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/02/1995
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Romanticism , #16
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Wordsworth's geology: references and allusions; 3. 'Pronounce their benediction: speak of them as powers': the wider context of geological information; 4. Trinity men; 5. Order, clarity, distinctness; 6. 'The universality of nature's kingdom'?; 7. Duration and decay: the abyss of time; 8. Geology: the poetic discipline; 9. Geologists and humanity; 10. Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a straightforward historical study....Wyatt's research is unimpeded by abstract theoretical claims....is a significant contribution to our knowledge of the complex links between poetic and scientific thought in the first half of the nineteenth century in England." Albion

"Wyatt has mastered and presented a broad array of scholarship about Romantic literature, Wordsworth, theology, geology, and natural science in a critical, thoughtful, and scholarly, but readable manner." Thomas McGeary, Journal of Geoscience Education

From the Publisher