Victorian Soundscapes

by John M. Picker

Far from the hushed restraint we associate with the Victorians, their world pulsated with sound. This book shows how, in more ways than one, Victorians were hearing things. The representations close listeners left of their soundscapes offered new meanings for silence, music, noise, voice, and echo that constitute an important part of the Victorian legacy to us today. In chronicling the shift from Romantic to modern configurations of sound and voice, Picker draws upon literary and scientific works to recapture the sense of aural discovery figures such as Babbage, Helmholtz, Freud, Bell, and Edison shared with the likes of Dickens, George Eliot, Tennyson, Stoker, and Conrad.

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is always enjoyable to find a book that draws together information that you are aware of, but have been unwilling, unable or even unsure how to make all the ideas and the parts fit. John Picker's Victorian Soundscapes is such a book. All books have sounds, be they a speaker's voice or a raging storm, or rumbles of a train or scrapes of chairs. But how exactly can a reader learn to better read these sounds, and thus find more satisfaction and enjoyment as well as gaining more insight into the text? To me, that answer was found in Picker's excellent and insightful text.

Picker evolves his analysis from major novels by authors such as George Eliot and Charles Dickens. One of the great strengths of Picker's book is the ease by which a reader, once aware of how to listen as we read, can apply Picker's insights and arguments to any book. The application of a skill to a new situation is always a pleasure.

As well as the codifying of sound into five catagories, one of which is silence, the reader is offered much supporting information. I was unaware of the fact that John Leech was driven to distraction and perhaps to his early death by the constant sounds of the street's organ grinders. What a delight to see many of Leech's illustrations of these annoying men drawn by Leech which appeared in Punch magazine. Thomas Carlyle has a soundproof room and Florence Nightingale in her "Notes on Nursing" drew connections between one's hearing and health.

This book is for any reader who wants more insight and knowledge about the function and importance reading and understanding how sounds are developed and used effectively in novels. While its focus is firmly focussed and written about the Victorian Era, its scope and application is universal.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most engaging books on sound I've read this year, "Victorian Soundscapes" examines the changing attitudes toward sound throughout the Victorian era by concentrating on the literature of the time. While previous knowledge of the written works referred to would obviously make this book's conclusions even clearer than they already are, prior knowledge of the texts discussed isn't necessary. Some of the works analyzed include Dickens' "Dombey and Son," George Eliot's "Daniel Deronda," Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Voice of Science," Bram Stoker's "Dracula," and Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." Along the way, other writings and events woven into the analysis include the writings on acoustics by Hermann von Helmhotz; the anti-immigrant cartoons of Punch magazine's John Leech; the far-fetched theories about sound and the atmosphere put forth by father of the computer Charles Babbage; the saga of Thomas Carlyle's attempt to design and build the first soundproof study in London; the histories of the development of the telephone, phonograph, and gramophone; and the origin of the painting "His Master's Voice" featuring the Victor Dog.

In Picker's thoroughly researched book, Walter Benjamin's modernist conceptions of authenticity and aura are foreshadowed by the Victorian obsession with the new technology to record speech, with poets like Tennyson using their own phonographs to record libraries of their own voices. The noise made by street musicians becomes a battlefield for the rising middle class, and Cage's 4'33" is presaged by George Eliot's take on repression in the traditional Victorian roles of wife and husband. Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell are shadowy background characters as the impact of recording and listening technological developments begins to be felt in the literature of the period, with plenty of factual information about the first recordings of music and voice to back up the literary analysis that is the book's focal point.

This is a fascinating cross-disciplinary study of sound and literature, history and fiction. Anyone interested in sound theory, Victorian literature, or the development of modern technology will most likely find something of worth in this amazing book. Very highly recommended.

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

An ingenious exploration of the Victorian imagination's relationship with sound, beginning with a ferocious print campaign (spearheaded by such luminaries as Charles Babbage and Charles Dickens) against London organ-grinders, which is by far the most entertaining part of the book. Later, Picker moves into an examination of how George Eliot utilised the era's soundscape in her novel DANIEL DERONDA, while the closing chapters look at the birth of the phonograph and how it pervaded popular culture (in, for example, DRACULA). The writing is lively and accessible, filled with engaging anecdotes and a strong narrative voice.