21 February 2014

Review: Victorian Empiricism by Peter Garratt

Hardcover, 244 pages
Published 2010

Borrowed from the library
Read October 2012
Victorian Empiricism: Self, Knowledge, and Reality in Ruskin, Bain, Lewes, Spencer, and George Eliot
by Peter Garratt

Garratt analyzes a number of Victorian approaches to empiricism; I found his chapter on George Henry Lewes the most interesting, looking at the ways that all perception is ultimately inflected: your sensations will always interact with perception, and error and doubt are ultimately characteristic of the gaze. Each of the thinkers in the title receives a chapter of discussion except for Eliot, whose literary works are threaded throughout  (Adam Bede in the chapter on Ruskin, Middlemarch in Lewes's and Bain's, The Lifted Veil in Spencer's). I found his comments about Eliot's work the most illuminating part of the book.

3 comments:

  1. Great post! The Victorian age will always motivate writers and researchers, that's for sure.

    By the way, I've been reading your blog for a while and I loved your post about Legion Lost. I would love it if you could visit my blog, I've been writing about the Legion lately.

    Cheers!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the comment and compliment. Your blog has a lot of interesting stuff-- as you know, I really enjoyed Legion Lost, and it's a strong analysis.

      Delete
  2. Oh, and my blog:

    www.artbyarion.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete