Fairy Tales, Natural History and Victorian Culture

Laurence Talairach-Vielmas is Professor of English at the University of Toulouse, France, and Associate Researcher at Alexandre Koyré Center for the History of Science and Technology in Paris. Her research specializes on the relations between literature and science. She is the author of Wilkie Collins, Medicine and the Gothic (2009) and Moulding the Female Body in Victorian Fairy Tales and Sensation Novels (2007).

“A winner of the SAES/AFEA Research Prize, this rich and complex study brilliantly merges fairylands and scientific worlds. … proves a compelling read, and a fascinating and valuable introduction to fields as diverse as nineteenth century’s natural history, fantastic literature (not only for children) and Victorian culture at large.” (Mara Mattoscio, Rivista di Studi Vittoriani, Vol. 40, 2017)

• Acknowledgements Introduction 1. From The Wonders of Nature to the Wonders of Evolution: Charles Kingsley's Nursery Fairies 2. 'How Are You To Enter The Fairy-Land of Science?': The Wonders of The Natural World in Arabella Buckley's Popular Science Works For Children 3. The Mechanization of Feelings: Mary de Morgan's Toy Princess 4. Nature Under Glass: Victorian Cinderellas, Magic and Metamorphosis 5. Nature Exposed: Charting the Wild Body in Little Red Riding Hood 6. Nature and the Natural World in Mary Louisa Molesworth's Christmas-Tree Land 7. Edith Nesbit's Fairies and Freaks of Nature: Environmental Consciousness in Five Children and It Epilogue Index