The animal estate : the English and other creatures in the Victorian Age

When we think about the Victorian age, we usually envision people together with animals: the Queen and her pugs, the sportsman with horses and hounds, the big game hunter with his wild kill, the gentleman farmer with a prize bull. Harriet Ritvo here gives us a vivid picture of how animals figured in English thinking during the nineteenth century and, by extension, how they served as metaphors for human psychological needs and sociopolitical aspirations. Victorian England was a period of burgeoning scientific cattle breeding and newly fashionable dog shows; an age of Empire and big game hunting; an era of reform and reformers that saw the birth of the Royal SPCA. Ritvo examines Victorian thinking about animals in the context of other lines of thought: evolution, class structure, popular science and natural history, imperial domination. The papers and publications of people and organizations concerned with agricultural breeding, veterinary medicine, the world of pets, vivisection and other humane causes, zoos, hunting at home and abroad, all reveal underlying assumptions and deeply held convictions―for example, about Britain’s imperial enterprise, social discipline, and the hierarchy of orders, in nature and in human society. Thus this book contributes a new new topic of inquiry to Victorian studies; its combination of rhetorical analysis with more conventional methods of historical research offers a novel perspective on Victorian culture. And because nineteenth-century attitudes and practices were often the ancestors of contemporary ones, this perspective can also inform modern debates about human–animal interactions. Frontmatter Introduction: The Nature of the Beast (page 1) Part I. Prestige and Pedigree Chapter 1. Barons of Beef (page 45) Chapter 2. Prize Pets (page 82) Part II. Dangerous Classes Chapter 3. A Measure of Compassion (page 125) Chapter 4. Cave Canem (page 167) Part III. Animals and Empire Chapter 5. Exotic Captives (page 205) Chapter 6. The Thrill of the Chase (page 243) Notes (page 291) Illustration Credits (page 337) Index (page 339) Introduction: The Nature Of The Beast -- Part I. Prestige And Pedigree -- Chapter 1. Barons Of Beef -- Chapter 2. Prize Pets -- Part Ii. Dangerous Classes -- Chapter 3. A Measure Of Compassion -- Chapter 4. Cave Canem -- Part Iii. Animals And Empire -- Chapter 5. Exotic Captives -- Chapter 6. The Thrill Of The Chase. Harriet Ritvo. Ill. On Lining Papers. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "Examine[s] human dealings with animals in 19th-century England. ... The six complementary aspects of human-animal relations she scrutinizes -- cattle breeding, pet breeding, anti-cruelty activism, attitudes toward rabies, wild-animal collections, big-game hunting -- are finally meant as metaphors of Englishmen's attitudes toward themselves and the universe."