The Physiology of the Novel : Reading, Neural Science, and the Form of Victorian Fiction

How did the Victorians read novels? Nicholas Dames answers that deceptively simple question by revealing a now-forgotten range of nineteenth-century theories of the novel, a range based in a study of human physiology during the act of reading, He demonstrates the ways in which the Victorians thought they read, & uncovers surprising responses to the question of what might have transpired in the minds & bodies of readers of Victorian fiction. His detailed studies of novel critics who were also interested in neurological science, combined with readings of novels by Thackeray, Eliot, Meredith, & Gissing, propose a vision of the Victorian novel-reader as far from the quietly immersed being we now imagine - as instead a reader whose nervous system was addressed, attacked, & soothed by authors newly aware of the neural operations of their public. Rich in unexpected intersections, from the British response to Wagnerian opera to the birth of speed-reading in the late nineteenth century, The Physiology of the Novel did, & still does, to the individual reader, & provides new answers to the question of how novels influenced a culture's way of reading, responding, & feeling.°°°Nicholas Dames is the Theodore Kahan Professor of Humanities at Columbia University & an editor in chief of Public Books. He is the author of The Physiology of the Novel: Reading, Neural Science, and the Form of Victorian Fiction and Amnesiac Selves: Nostalgia, Forgetting, and British Fiction, 1810–1870. How did the Victorians read novels? Nicholas Dames answers that deceptively simple question by revealing a now-forgotten range of nineteenth-century theories of the novel, a range based in a study of human physiology during the act of reading, He demonstrates the ways in which the Victorians thought they read, and uncovers surprising responses to the question of what might have transpired in the minds and bodies of readers of Victorian fiction. His detailed studies of novel critics who were also interested in neurological science, combined with readings of novels by Thackeray, Eliot, Meredith, and Gissing, propose a vision of the Victorian novel-reader as far from the quietly immersed being we now imagine - as instead a reader whose nervous system was addressed, attacked, and soothed by authors newly aware of the neural operations of their public. Rich in unexpected intersections, from the British response to Wagnerian opera to the birth of speed-reading in the late nineteenth century, The Physiology of the Novel challenges our assumptions about what novel-reading once did, and still does, to the individual reader, and provides new answers to the question of how novels influenced a culture's way of reading, responding, and feeling.

How did the Victorians read novels? Nicholas Dames answers that deceptively simple question by revealing a now-forgotten range of nineteenth-century theories of the novel, a range based in a study of human physiology during the act of reading, He demonstrates the ways in which the Victorians thought they read, and uncovers surprising responses to the question of what might have transpired in the minds and bodies of readers of Victorian fiction. His detailed studies of novel critics who were also interested in neurological science, combined with readings of novels by Thackeray, Eliot, Meredith, and Gissing, propose a vision of the Victorian novel-reader as far from the quietly immersed being we now imagine - as instead a reader whose nervous system was addressed, attacked, and soothed by authors newly aware of the neural operations of their public. Rich in unexpected intersections, from the British response to Wagnerian opera to the birth of speed-reading in the late nineteenth century, The Physiology of the Novel did, and still does, to the individual reader, and provides new answers to the question of how novels influenced a culture's way of reading, responding, and feeling.

Contents......Page 10 List of Illustrations......Page 11 Introduction: Toward a History of Victorian Novel Theory......Page 12 I. THEORIES OF READING: A CRITICAL PREHISTORY......Page 34 1. Mass Reading and Physiological Novel Theory......Page 36 II. PRACTICES OF READING: FOUR CASES......Page 82 2. Distraction’s Negative Liberty: Thackeray and Attention (Intermittent Form)......Page 84 3. Melodies for the Forgetful: Eliot, Wagner, and Duration (Elongated Form)......Page 134 4. Just Noticeable Differences: Meredith and Fragmentation (Discontinuous Form)......Page 177 5. The Eye as Motor: Gissing and Speed-Reading (Accelerated Form)......Page 218 Coda: I. A. Richards and the End of Physiological Novel Theory......Page 258 Bibliography......Page 267 D......Page 284 J......Page 285 P......Page 286 W......Page 287 How did the Victorians read novels? Nicholas Dames answers that deceptively simple question by revealing a now-forgotten range of 19th-century theories of the novel, based in a study of human physiology during the act of reading. He shows us the ways in which the Victorians thought they read, and uncovers surprising responses to the question of what might have transpired in the minds and bodies of readers of Victorian fiction. - ;How did the Victorians read novels? Nicholas Dames answers that deceptively simple question by revealing a now-forgotten range of nineteenth-century theories of the "Rich in unexpected intersections, from the British response to Wagnerian opera to the birth of speed-reading in the late nineteenth century, The Physiology of the Novel challenges our assumptions about what novel-reading once did, and still does, to the individual reader, and provides new answers to the question of how novels influenced a culture's way of reading, responding, and feeling."--BOOK JACKET How did the Victorians read novels? The author answers that deceptively simple question by revealing a now-forgotten range of 19th century theories of the novel, based in a study of human physiology during the act of reading