Creating Romanticism: Case Studies in the Literature, Science and Medicine of the 1790s

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 12
List of Abbreviations and Manuscripts......Page 14
Introduction......Page 16
'Poetry' and 'science' in the Romantic era......Page 22
Wordsworth's experiments......Page 26
Wordsworth the physician......Page 29
Wordsworth's 'Poet' and the 'Man of science'......Page 35
1 Mary Wollstonecraft and Nature......Page 43
1.1 'I am then going to be the first of a new genus': scientific and medical notions of 'woman'......Page 47
1.2 Joseph Johnson, the Analytical Review, and natural history......Page 51
1.3 Animal instinct and human reason......Page 59
1.4 Botany......Page 68
1.5 Race theory......Page 70
2 William Godwin and the Imagination......Page 78
2.1 Godwin's scientific and medical writings......Page 82
2.2 The evidence of Godwin's diary......Page 96
2.3 Imagination and theatrical performances of authority......Page 103
3 Romantic Creation......Page 112
3.1 Literary composition and organic creation......Page 118
3.2 Monstrous births and literary invention......Page 132
4 Humphry Davy and the Sublime......Page 147
4.1 Science and the sublime......Page 155
4.2 'I seemed to be a sublime being, newly created and superior to other mortals'......Page 166
4.3 'Thus would chemistry, in its connections with the laws of life, become the most sublime and important of all sciences'......Page 178
Conclusion......Page 190
Notes......Page 193
Bibliography......Page 209
Index......Page 226