{"product_id":"evolutionary-aestheticism-in-victorian-culture-hardback-9781009469357","title":"Evolutionary Aestheticism in Victorian Culture (Hardback) 9781009469357","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eEvolutionary Aestheticism in Victorian Culture\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA revealing enquiry into how Victorian evolutionists and aesthetes converged over utopian ideas about beauty, pleasure, and social progress.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eLindsay Wilhelm (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781009469357, Cambridge University Press\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 12 December 2024\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e272 pages\u003cbr\u003e23.6 x 16 x 1.9 cm, 0.542 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eThe Aesthetic Movement, a collection of artists, writers and thinkers who rejected traditional ideas of beauty as guided and judged by morals and utility and rallied under the banner of 'art for art's sake', are often associated with hedonism and purposelessness. However, as Lindsay Wilhelm shows, aestheticism may have been more closely related to nineteenth-century ideas of progress and scientific advancement than we think. This book illuminates an important intellectual alliance between aestheticism and evolutionism in late-nineteenth-century Britain, putting aesthetic writers such as Vernon Lee, Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater into dialogue with scientific thinkers such as Darwin and mathematician W. K. Clifford. Considering in particular how Aestheticism and scientific thinking converged on utopian ideas about beauty, Lindsay Wilhelm reveals how this evolutionary aestheticism crucially shaped Victorian debates about individual pleasure and social progress that continue to resonate today.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e1. On the origin of evolutionary aesthetics\u003cbr\u003e 2. Evolution, secular reverence, and the rise of aestheticism\u003cbr\u003e 3. The Utopian (r)evolutionism of Grant Allen and Oscar Wilde\u003cbr\u003e 4. Art for the sake of life: 'life-enhancing' aesthetics in the Fin de Siècle\u003cbr\u003e 5. Taste and cultural progress in Bloomsbury and beyond\u003cbr\u003e Coda: the critic as prophet.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eSubject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [\u003ca title=\"See our other books on Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900\" href=\"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/search?q=%22Literary%20studies:%20c%201800%20to%20c%201900%20%20%5BDSBF%5D%22\"\u003eDSBF\u003c\/a\u003e]\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Cambridge University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52501363523864,"sku":"9781009469357","price":68.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0730\/2037\/5320\/files\/9781009469357i.jpg?v=1786233838","url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/evolutionary-aestheticism-in-victorian-culture-hardback-9781009469357","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}