{"product_id":"seeing-things-virtual-aesthetics-in-victorian-culture-hardback-9781501783678","title":"Seeing Things; Virtual Aesthetics in Victorian Culture (Hardback) 9781501783678","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eSeeing Things\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eVirtual Aesthetics in Victorian Culture\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eAmanda Shubert (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781501783678\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 15 November 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e252 pages, 7 b\u0026amp;w halftones, 16 color halftones - 7 Halftones, black and white - 16 Halftones, color\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.907 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\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA cultural history of nineteenth-century media imaginaries, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSeeing Things\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e tells the story of how Victorians experienced the virtual images created by modern optical technologies – magic lanterns, stereoscopes, phenakistoscopes, museum displays, and illusionistic stage magic. \u003c\/b\u003eAmanda Shubert argues that interactions with these devices gave rise to a new virtual aesthetics – an understanding of visual and perceptual encounters with things that are not really there. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe popularization of Victorian optical media redefined visuality as a rational mode of spectatorship that taught audiences to distinguish illusion from reality. As an aesthetic expression of a civilizational ideal that defined the capacity to see but not believe, to be entertained without being deceived, it became a sign of western supremacy. By tracing the development of virtual aesthetics through nineteenth-century writings, from the novels of George Eliot and Charles Dickens to popular science writing and imperial travelogues, \u003ci\u003eSeeing Things\u003c\/i\u003e recovers a formative period of technological and literary innovation to explain how optical media not only anticipated cinema but became a paradigmatic media aesthetic of western modernity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction: What Was the Virtual?\u003cbr\u003e1. Magic Panic: The Pedagogy of Disenchantment\u003cbr\u003e2. The Mirror of Ink: Realism, Orientalism, and Vision at a Distance\u003cbr\u003e3. Mountains of Light: The Koh-i-Noor at the Great Exhibition\u003cbr\u003e4. Recalled to Life: Phantasmagoria as the History of the French Revolution\u003cbr\u003e5. Spinning in Place: Trapped in the Moving Picture Machine\u003cbr\u003eEpilogue: Arrival of a Train\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52610560622872,"sku":"9781501783678","price":86.76,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/seeing-things-virtual-aesthetics-in-victorian-culture-hardback-9781501783678","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}