Fairies in Nineteenth-Century Art and Literature

This book examines the fairy in the work of many Victorian painters, novelists and poets.

Nicola Bown (Author)

9780521793155, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 September 2001

254 pages, 30 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.54 kg

'This is a richly textured book.' Notes & Queries

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 crystallized contemporary anxieties about the effects of industrialization, 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 symbolized 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 a people suffused with the enchantment that was disappearing from their own lives.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: small enchantments
1. Fancies of fairies and spirits and nonsense
2. Queen Mab among the steam engines
3. A few fragments of fairyology, shewing its connection with natural history
4. A broken heart and a pocket full of ashes
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], History of art & design styles: c 1800 to c 1900 [ACV]