Fairies in Nineteenth-Century Art and Literature"Although fairies are now banished to the realm of childhood, these diminutive figures were central to the work of many Victorian painters, novelists, poets and even scientists. It would be no exaggeration to say that the Victorians were obsessed with fairies: yet this obsession has hitherto received little scholarly attention. Nicola Bown reminds us of the importance of fairies in Victorian culture. In the figure of the fairy, the Victorians crystallised contemporary anxieties about the effects of industrialisation, the remoteness of the past, the value of culture and the way in which science threatened to undermine religion and spirituality. Above all, the fairy symbolised disenchantment with the irresistible forces of progress and modernity. As these forces stripped the world of its wonder, the Victorians consoled themselves by dreaming of a place and people suffused with enchantment that was disappearing from their own lives." --Book Jacket. |
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Contents
Fancies of Fairies and spirits and nonsense | 12 |
Queen Mab among the steam engines | 39 |
A few fragments of fairyology shewing | 98 |
A broken heart and a pocket full of ashes | 163 |
Notes | 198 |
220 | |
230 | |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic animals anxiety argue Ariel artist balloon beautiful believe Caliban Caliban Upon Setebos centre childhood Cock Robin counter-Enlightenment creatures Dadd's Darwin's depict dream Elsie enchanted Enlightenment entangled bank example factory Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke fairy paintings fairyland fancy figure Fitzgerald's flight Fuseli's Gallery gaze Gillian Beer grotesque Henry Fuseli human body Ibid idea ideal illustration imagination implies industrial industrialisation insects interest in fairies John Joseph Noel Paton Kelpie landscape London look magic metaphor Midsummer Night's Midsummer Night's Dream miniature modernity narrative natural history natural theology natural world nineteenth century nostalgia nostalgic Oberon and Titania original Oxford painter past perspective photographs picture poem poetic poetry popular Pre-Raphaelite Puck relation represented Richard Dadd Royal Academy Ruskin scale scene scientific sense Shakespeare species spectator spirit supernatural Tate Gallery taxidermy tiny Titania tradition University Press Victorian culture viewer vision visual wings women wonderful