ThermoPoetics: Energy in Victorian Literature and Science

Barri J. Gold is Associate Professor of English at Muhlenberg College.

"Brilliant...A model of what a rigorous engagement with the relationship between culture and science ought to look like. Thermopoetics demonstrates compellingly how central thermodynamics was to the Victorian literary imaginary." -- Allen MacDuffie, Literature Compass "...[A]n extraordinary reconsideration of Victorian novels, plays, and poems pierced by time's arrow... ThermoPoetics creates a new kind of law, one that recognizes that science and art are not two separate systems, but instead that the rules that govern both fiction and physics are borne out of the same world..." -- Michelle Legro, Brain Pickings " ThermoPoetics will appeal to a broad audience ranging from general readers of Victoriana to scholarly readers of cultural studies and dedicated literature and science specialists, to Victorianists and nineteenth-century literature scholars, in general and across national divisions. This work of responsive and responsible scholarship is an important contribution to the field of literature and science." -- Bruce Clark, Metascience " ThermoPoetics provides readers with a fascinating investigation of the interplay between science and literature in the Victorian era." -- SEED Magazine " ThermoPoetics is an excellent example of current research that emphasises the common concerns of literature and science: one rather than two cultures." -- PD Smith, The Guardian "[Gold] draws attention to the frequent use of analogy, metaphor and personification in scientific writing that sought to establish the principles of thermodynamic thought... The most endearing aspect of this innovative and accessible book is its unrelenting desire to emphasize the 'literary pleasure' that might be derived from an energetic 'reading practice'." -- The Times Literary Supplement