Worlds beyond : miniatures and Victorian fiction / Laura Forsberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forsberg, Laura, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

English literature.

Printing--History.

Printing.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (256 p.) : 20 b-w illus.

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

An innovative study of how the Victorians used books, portraits, fairies, microscopes, and dollhouses to imagine miniature worlds beyond perception In 1856, Elizabeth Gaskell discovered a trove of handmade miniature books that were created by Charlotte and Branwell Brontë in their youth and that, as Gaskell later recalled, “contained an immense amount of manuscript, in an inconceivably small space.” Far from being singular wonders, these two-inch volumes were part of a wide array of miniature marvels that filled the drawers and pockets of middle- and upper-class Victorians. Victorian miniatures pushed the boundaries of scientific knowledge, mechanical production, and human perception. To touch a miniature was to imagine what lay beyond these boundaries. In Worlds Beyond, Laura Forsberg reads major works of fiction by George Eliot, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Lewis Carroll alongside minor genres like the doll narrative, fairy science tract, and thumb Bible. Forsberg guides readers through microscopic science, art history, children’s culture, and book production to show how Victorian miniatures offered scripts for expansive fantasies of worlds beyond perception.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One: Miniatures and Art

Chapter One Victorian Portrait Miniatures: Private Attachment and Public Display

Chapter Two Portrait Miniatures in the Novel from Jane Austen to George Eliot

Part Two: Miniatures and Science

Chapter Three Microscopic Empiricism and Enchantment

Chapter Four Fairies Through the Microscope

Part Three: Miniatures and Childhood

Chapter Five Imperfect Miniaturization: Toys in the Victorian Nursery

Chapter Six Speculative Fictions: World Making in Glass Town and Wonderland

Part Four: Miniatures and the Book

Chapter Seven Multum in Parvo: Miniature Books

Coda Miniatures after the Victorian Age

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-300-25841-0

OCLC:

1250090265