Environment and Ecology in the Long Nineteenth-Century

This volume includes sources relating to a range of social and cultural contexts, including the proliferation of natural history crazes (ferns, aquaria, orchids, etc); debates about the social and environmental impacts of changing land use in town and country; debates about demographics, population, and resources inspired by Thomas Malthus; attempts to preserve landscapes (e.g., The Commons Preservation Society), debates about hunger, poverty, and disease in the countryside, particularly during the âHungry Fortiesâ, and relating to the Captain Swing and Chartist disturbances; the rise of land Utopianism and rural Utopian community projects; the rise of new forms of rural leisure; aesthetic engagements with rural enviroments and new world travel; and debates about pollution (especially water pollution). The volume will also turn to a range of literary sources from the period prior to 1858 to illustrate the ways in which changing attitudes to environments emerged in fiction. These include extracts from Dickensâs early works, the hunting novels of R. S. Surtees, the social novels of Harriet Martineau, Charlotte Tonna, Charles Kingsley and Margaret Oliphant, John Ruskinâs environmental fairytale, âThe King of the Golden Riverâ, chartist fiction, Victorian childrenâs fiction, and adventure novels.