Spiritual History of Ice

ERIC WILSON is Associate Professor of English at Wake Forest University, where he teaches courses in British and American Romanticism. He is author of Romantic Turbulence and Emerson's Sublime Science.

"Like crystalline forms, this book is weird and wondrous ...Wilson presents his wide-ranging and energetic research in gripping, narrative fashion." - Gothic Studies "Wilson's account is intelligent and his style eloquent... [He] is particularly insightful on optics ...[and] his reading of literary texts is sensitive throughout." - European Romantic Review "Wilson achieves his aim of interpreting Frankenstein, Mont Blanc, Manfred, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and pertinent works by Emerson and Thoreau in the light of discoveries within newly esoteric natural philosophy...Wilson's book is a learned and wide-ranging literary study certain to be influential in both content and method." - Studies in Romanticism "The book assimilates a staggering number of primary sources and secondary references and strikes a balance between theoretical abstraction and practical criticism...It constitutes Wilson's best book yet." - The Wordsworth Circle

• Prologue: Frozen Apocolypse Introduction: The Spirit of Ice Crystals Glaciers The Poles Conclusion: Genesis and Melting