Big and Small

Lynne Vallone is professor of English and childhood studies at Rutgers University. She has written and co-edited several books, including Becoming Victoria and The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature. She lives in Riverton, NJ.

“A compelling and innovative account of why size matters. . . Brings much-needed height and breadth to a neglected field.”—Louisa Yates, THES"A pleasure to read. Vallone constantly pushes her inquiries beyond period- or genre-boundaries to ask broad questions that concern us all, as human beings as well as professional specialists. Big & Small should rank alongside the best, most far-reaching studies of childhood and human culture available today."—Professor Rachel Falconer, University of Lausanne"Size matters. Whether our bodies are classed as "ordinary" or "extraordinary", such evaluations have a major impact on how we move through the world. Lynne Vallone's mediations on bodily size are both delightful and insightful. She has a formidable grasp of literary, scientific, and historical approaches to bodies, which she tackles with political as well as personal engagement. I loved reading this book."—Professor Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck, University of London.​"Big and Small is a fascinating and innovative work which deals with a topic we tend to overlook – size and human measure. Through a careful and thorough analysis of literature, art, and science from the eighteenth century to the present Vallone demonstrates that size matters in all aspects of our lives. Convincing and highly significant, her book will change our views of how we determine all aspects and values of bodies."—Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota"Vallone’s skill in moving between divergent bodies of material with such assured interdisciplinary gusto means that this is something of a magnum opus: the type of major scholarly achievement that only the best kind of critical mind is capable of producing after years of searching inquiry into a very broad range of sources drawn from literature, art history, sociology, and gender studies. An outstanding and resourceful work."—Prof. Joseph Bristow, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles