The Fin de Siècle: A Reader in Cultural History, c. 1880-1900

by Sally Ledger, Roger Luckhurst

The fin-de-siècle period--roughly the years 1880 to 1900--was characterized by great cultural and political ambivalence, an anxiety for things lost, and a longing for the new. It also included an outpouring of intellectual responses to the conflicting times from such eminent writers as T. H. Huxley, Emma Goldman, William James, H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde. In this important anthology, Ledger and Luckhurst make available to students, scholars, and general readers a large body of non-literary texts which richly configure the variegated cultural history of the fin-de-siècle years. That history is here shown to inaugurate many enduring critical and cultural concerns, with sections on Degeneration, Outcast London, The Metropolis, The New Woman, Literary Debates, The New Imperialism, Socialism, Anarchism, Scientific Naturalism, Psychology, Psychical Research, Sexology, Anthropology, and Racial Science. Each section begins with an Introduction and closes with Editorial Notes that carefully situate individual texts within a wider cultural landscape.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, 19th Century, Philosophy, Historical, Academia

392 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2000

Reviews

[Alice]

Really helpful book for those studying the fin de siecle. I'm a literature student but I think history, art or even politics students would find this collection helpful.

[telbooks]

Very helpful book that contains different essays in regard to some of the anxieties that took place during the Fin de Siècle in England. I specially recommend the section of “The New Woman”, since it deals with the phenomenon from the perspective of authors of the period, such as Mona Caird and Sarah Grand.

[E. Merrill Brouder]

A powerful study tool and a convenient source for 'source materials.'

[Christopher Ford]

Extremely helpful whilst studying

[fee]

postgraduate module - Murderers and degenerates