Changing the climate at the fin de siècle : science, fiction, and the anthropocene / Sebastian Egholm Lund, University of Oxford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lund, Sebastian Egholm, Author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 159.

Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 159

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Climatic changes in literature.

Weather control in literature.

Fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

Fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 226 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

During the nineteenth century, a plethora of literary authors began imagining that humanity could affect the global climate. Paradoxically, they did this not through the scientific paradigm of global warming, but its perverse inverse: climate control. Rigorously contextualized by the climate events, science, and technology of the nineteenth century, this study compares how canonical figures such as Mark Twain and neglected authors such as Rokeya Hossain represented global climate control as an apocalyptic, utopian, and literary invention. It argues that these authors expressed a shift to an Anthropocene awareness not through prophetic representations of catastrophic change but rather through Promethean fantasies of control. Revelatory for scholars working in both nineteenth-century studies and the environmental humanities, this is the story of the progressive inscription of atmospheric control into ensuing Western modernism and modernity long before the advent of 'global warming'.

Contents:

Introduction: A new air

The changing climate of the nineteenth century

Straightening the planet: Jules Verne

Hothousing the world: H.G. Wells

Digging the future: Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Gabriel Tarde

Conquering the sky: Mary Bradley Lane and Rokeya Hossain

Artificialising the atmosphere: J.-K. Huysmans

Controlling the climate of fiction: Mark Twain

Conclusion: Grasping the globe.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Jul 2026).

ISBN:

9781009884167