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In Nature’s Name

An Anthology of Women’s Writing and Illustration, 1780-1930

From the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, hundreds of British women wrote about and drew from nature. Some—like the beloved children’s author Beatrix Potter, who produced natural history about hedgehogs as well as fiction about rabbits—are still familiar today. But others have all but disappeared from view. Barbara Gates recovers these lost works and prints them alongside little-known pieces by more famous authors, like Potter’s field notes on hedgehogs, reminding us of better known stories that help set the others in context.

The works contained in this volume are as varied as the women who produced them. They include passionate essays on the protection of animals, vivid accounts of travel and adventure from the English seashore to the Indian Alps, poetry and fiction, and marvelous tales of nature for children. Special features of the book include a detailed chronology placing each selection in its historical and literary context; biographical sketches of each author’s life and works; a comprehensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature; and over sixty illustrations.

An ideal introduction to women’s powerful and diverse responses to the natural world, In Nature’s Name will be treasured by anyone interested in natural history, women, or Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

Read some excerpts.


704 pages | 28 halftones, 37 line drawings | 6 x 9 | © 2002

Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory

Table of Contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface

PRELUDE

SECTION ONE: SPEAKING OUT

Introduction

SECTION TWO: PROTECTING

Introduction

Sensitivity to Other Species

The Horrors of Sport

Antivivisection

Conservation: Birds

Conservation: The Land and Its Plants

SECTION THREE: DOMESTICATING

Introduction

Menageries and Animal Stories

Farming and Gardsening

Plants and Interiors

SECTION FOUR: ADVENTURING

Introduction

For Science

For Sport

SECTION FIVE: APPRECIATING

Introduction

Romanticism

Aestheticism

The Color of Life

SECTION SIX: POPULARIZING SCINECE

Introduction

Kinds of Science Popularization

Women and Darwin

SECTION SEVEN: AMATEURS OR PROFESSIONALS?

Introduction

Who/What Was a Professional?

Seaweeds, Zoophytes, and Women

Professionals

POSTLUDE

Chronology
Biographical Sketches
For Further Reading

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