ThisbooktakesasitsstartingpointPierre-SimonLaplace’smuch-citeddreamin1812of’avastintelligence’whichcan’embraceinthesameformulathemovementsofthegreatestbodiesoftheuniverseandthoseofthelightestatom’andforwhichthefutureandthepastareequallycalculable.LaplacesetsoutTHEecht-Enlightenmentidealofscientificomniscienceandtheclassicstatementofadeterministicuniverse.TheauthorinvestigatessomeofthewaysinwhichLaplacianand,indeed,NewtonianmodelsofobservationandtheuniverseareatonceassimilatedandcomplicatedbyRomanticandVictorianwriterssuchasCarlyle,Burke,Abbott,PoeandWordsworth.Inparticular,itaimstoretracesomeofthewaysinwhichLaplacianNewtonianmodelsofscientific’intelligence’cometoinformnineteenth-centurywriters’viewsofthemselvesandtheirownmodesofobservation.Theauthoralsoexplainshowsomeoftheseliteraryreimaginingslookforwardtomoremodernconceptionsofscienceinthetwentiethandtwenty-firstcenturies,suchasChaosTheoryandEinsteinianCosmology.Oddlyenough,contemporarysciencewouldseemtorealiseCarlyle’svisionofa’Natural-Supernaturalism’,fusingLaplace’smechanicalvisionwithRomanticism.Thisbookcoversavastarrayoftopics,includingPhilosophy,Wagner’smusicandmusicingeneral,Jungiananalysis,andendswiththe’omniscient’narratorinCharlesDickens’s’TheOldCuriosityShop’,asanexampleofwhatcametobethedominantmodeofnarrationinlaterVictorianfiction.
indeed ABBOTT Abbott INDEED LITERATURE NATURAL SCIENCE
