Overview
In Victorian Britain an array of writers captured the excitement of new scientific discoveries, and enticed young readers and listeners into learning their secrets, by converting introductory explanations into quirky, charming, and imaginative fairy-tales; forces could be fairies, dinosaurs could be dragons, and looking closely at a drop of water revealed a soup of monsters.Science in Wonderland explores how these stories were presented and read. Melanie Keene introduces and analyses a range of Victorian scientific fairy-tales, from nursery classics such as The Water-Babies to the little-known Wonderland of Evolution, or the story of insect lecturer Fairy Know-a-Bit. In exploring the ways in which authors and translators - from Hans Christian Andersen and Edith Nesbit to the pseudonymous 'A.L.O.E.' and 'Acheta Domestica' - reconciled the differing demands of factual accuracy and fantastical narratives, Keene asks why the fairies and their tales were chosen as an appropriate new form for capturing and presenting scientific and technological knowledge to young audiences. Such stories, she argues, were an important way in which authors and audiences criticised, communicated, and celebrated contemporary scientific ideas, practices, and objects.
Full Product Details
Author: Melanie Keene (Graduate Tutor and Research Fellow, Homerton College, Cambridge)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 14.40cm
, Height: 2.40cm
, Length: 22.30cm
Weight: 0.448kg
ISBN: 9780199662654
ISBN 10: 0199662657
Pages: 242
Publication Date: 26 March 2015
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
intriguing book Engineering and Technology, Dominic Lenton The illustrations are rather brilliant Independent, Lucy Scholes Keene's material is fascinating Financial Times, Suzi Feay light-footed and intriguing study... What Keene has assembled is beautifully odd Scotland on Sunday, Stuart Kelly Certainly an interesting topic Popular Science, Brian Clegg
Certainly an interesting topic Popular Science, Brian Clegg
light-footed and intriguing study... What Keene has assembled is beautifully odd Scotland on Sunday, Stuart Kelly Certainly an interesting topic Popular Science, Brian Clegg
Author Information
Melanie Keene is a historian of science for children, based at Homerton College, Cambridge. She has published several academic and popular articles on scientific books and objects from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, on topics from candles, pebbles, or cups of tea, to board games, toy sets, and model dinosaurs.
