Passion and pathology in Victorian fiction
By: Jane Wood.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
Subjects: English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Body, Human, in literature; Literature and medicine -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Neurology -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Medical fiction -- History and criticism; Mental illness in literature; Mind and body in literature; Emotions in literature; Diseases in literature
Description: "In what was once described as 'the century of nerves', a fascination with the mysterious processes governing physical and psychological states was shared by medical and fiction writers alike. This study offers an integrated analysis of how medicine and literature figured the connection between the body and the mind. Alongside detailed examinations of some of the century's most influential neurological and physiological theories, Jane Wood brings readings of both major and relatively neglected fictions - a range which includes work by Charlotte Bronte and George MacDonald, George Eliot and Wilkie Collins, Thomas Hardy and George Gissing. Stepping into an already lively area of interdisciplinary debate, Passion and Pathology in distinguished by its recognition of the intellectual and imaginative force of both discourses: it extends our understanding of the interaction between science and literature in the wider culture of the period."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [219]-229) and index.