The road to Egdon Heath : the aesthetics of the great in nature / Richard Bevis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bevis, Richard W.

Series:

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of ideas ; 25.

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of ideas ; 25

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nature (Aesthetics).

Nature in literature.

Landscapes in literature.

Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928. Return of the native.

Hardy, Thomas.

Physical Description:

xv, 409 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Bevis examines a wide range of English, European, and North American texts, literary works as well as religious, scientific, and travel writing. He surveys the literature on mountain climbing, sea voyages, desert travel, and polar exploration, and its metaphorical uses in poetry and fiction. Relying on Addison's term "the Great" rather than "the sublime," he shows how works such as Darwin's journals, Lyell's studies in geology, and de Saussure's books on the Alps helped form an outlook on nature that also found frequent literary expression. A wide-ranging, interdisciplinary work in the history of ideas, The Road to Egdon Heath traces the growth of an aesthetic sensibility that is now ubiquitous but which would have been incomprehensible prior to the Renaissance. This sensibility underlies not only much of modern literature but also our modern ideas about conservation, ecology, and environmentalism.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface

Introduction: Tempe and Thule

Underpinnings

The Great as Aesthetic Category

Knowing the Planet: Early Travel and Exploration

Coming to Terms: Philosophy, Religion, and Science

Recognizing Greatness: The Eighteenth Century

The Great and the Sublime: British Aesthetics

Wild Writing: The Great in Georgian Literature

Breaking Loose: European Developments to Goethe

Enlarged Views: English Travel and Exploration

From Sublimity to Barrenness: The Romantic Period

Mind and Earth: Philosophy and Science

Poetic Feet: England’s Peripatetic Bards

Landscapes in Prose: Fiction and Travel

Science and Sensibility: The Nineteenth Century

“Go and See”: Lyell, Geology, and Belief

“What Is Nature?” Some Influential Views, 1830–70

Leaving Blanks: American Novelists and the Great

The Naked Truth: Desert Travel, 1830–70

Mighty Fortresses: The Meanings of Mountains, 1830–70

The Arctic Saga: Polar Exploration, 1830–67

Desert Souls: The Great and Barren in European Literature, 1830–66

On the Beach: Victorian Writers by the Sea of Doubt

On the Heath: The 1870s

The Heath Revisited

Chronological Table

Lexicon

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [375]-396) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85538-7

9786612855382

0-7735-6753-4

OCLC:

929121509