Victorian Sensation

Starred review from January 3, 2000
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation was one of the Victorian era's bestsellers. In England in the 1840s, everyone was reading it: aristocrats, students, barmaids, farmers. Those who couldn't read were having it read to them, and everyone was discussing it over tea or ale. Pre-Darwinian, the book shocked and titillated readers by suggesting that the planets and stars had their origin in a blazing fire-mist and that life on earth had evolved. University of Cambridge's Secord traces the history of science in Victorian times and translates the wacky theories in Vestiges into modern, accessible language; he also outlines a history of reading and publishing in 19th-century England. We learn, for example, that in the two decades before the publication of Vestiges, English bookmakers began experimenting with more identifiable bindings. Publishers were wary of new, untested novelists but churned out cheap volumes of nonfiction, many of them on scientific themes. Early in the century, working-class people read primarily religious works, radical political pamphlets and astrology guides, but in the 1830s they began devouring scientific treatises, boning up on phrenology and physiology. Secord also shows how a small army of writers and editors managed to profit from VestigesDwriters were paid top rates to review the book; scientific periodicals began flying off the stands after the book appeared. In addition, a plethora of outraged responses to the perceived sacrilege provide a printed microcosm of the West's longstanding battle between science and religion. Secord's book is an exemplar of nuanced, scholarly curiosityDi.e., he delivers a brief study of the phenomenon of sensation in the 19th centuryDand clear, understated prose. Anyone interested in English history or the histories of science or literature shouldn't miss it. Illus. throughout.

November 15, 2000
The publication in 1844 of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation caused a tremendous stir among the general educated public, organized religion, and the scientific community. Secord (history and philosophy of science, Cambridge Univ.; Controversy in Victorian Geology) details all aspects of its publication and reception, including the social history, role of reading, histories of evolution and printing, and interplay between religion and science. Vestiges is often regarded as a precursor to Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, but the author ably demonstrates that it has its own important place in history. Its publication really did create a sensation owing to its controversial subject matter, philosophy, and anonymous authorship (revealed to be Robert Chambers years after publication), and the book was widely read, debated, condemned, and praised. This account will satisfy bibliophiles and readers with interest in science, publishing, and Victorian society and is essential for library collections encompassing these subjects.--Joyce L. Ogburn, Univ. of Washington Libs., Seattle

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