Science and Eccentricity:

Collecting, Writing and Performing Science for Early Nineteenth-Century Audiences

---

Victoria Carroll

Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century

The concept of eccentricity was central to how people in the nineteenth century understood their world. This monograph is the first scholarly history of eccentricity. Carroll explores how discourses of eccentricity were established to make sense of individuals who did not seem to fit within an increasingly organised social and economic order. She focuses on the self-taught natural philosopher William Martin, the fossilist Thomas Hawkins and the taxidermist Charles Waterton.

Readership

History of Science and Mediciine, Nineteeth-Century Studies

Contents

Chapter 1: Defining eccentricity

Chapter 2: Performing eccentricity: William Martin and the world turned upside down

Chapter 3: ‘Beyond the pale of ordinary criticism’: Eccentric writing and the works of Thomas Hawkins

Chapter 4: Eccentricity on display: Charles Waterton as collector and specimen

Conclusion

Return to top