The physiology of the novel : reading, neural science, and the form of Victorian fiction / Nicholas Dames.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dames, Nicholas, 1970-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--19th century--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

English literature.

English literature--19th century--History and criticism.

Books and reading--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Books and reading.

Reader-response criticism--Great Britain.

Reader-response criticism.

Literature and society--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Literature and society.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (771 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How did the Victorians read novels? Nicholas Dames answers that deceptively simple question by revealing a now-forgotten range of 19th-century theories of the novel, based in a study of human physiology during the act of reading. He shows us the ways in which the Victorians thought they read, and uncovers surprising responses to the question of what might have transpired in the minds and bodies of readers of Victorian fiction. - ;How did the Victorians read novels? Nicholas Dames answers that deceptively simple question by revealing a now-forgotten range of nineteenth-century theories of the

Contents:

Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Acknowledgements; Contents; List of Illustrations; Introduction: Toward a History of Victorian Novel Theory; I. THEORIES OF READING: A CRITICAL PREHISTORY; 1 Mass Reading and Physiological Novel Theory; II. PRACTICES OF READING: FOUR CASES; 2 Distraction's Negative Liberty: Thackeray and Attention; 3 Melodies for the Forgetful: Eliot, Wagner, and Duration; 4 Just Noticeable Differences: Meredith and Fragmentation; 5 The Eye as Motor: Gissing and Speed-Reading; Coda I. A. Richards and the End of Physiological Novel Theory; Bibliography; Index

Foot notes introduction_fn1; introduction_fn2; introduction

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [256]-272) and index.

Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-160727-4

0-19-152611-8

1-281-16061-X

1-4356-0983-2

9786611160616

OCLC:

437096372