Victorian Nightshades
how the solanaceae shaped the modern world
$99.90
- Paperback
348 pages
- Release Date
19 February 2025
Summary
A darkly alluring plant family and the arrival of modernity
Victorian Nightshades tells the story of how one plant family—notorious for centuries in England because of its frequently psychoactive and poisonous properties—rose to social and economic prevalence during the nineteenth century. Beginning with bittersweet and belladonna, the Old World species associated with evil, witchcraft, and dangerous women in an era when traditional botanical beliefs not only…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780813952543 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0813952549 |
| Author: | Elizabeth A. Campbell |
| Publisher: | University of Virginia Press |
| Imprint: | University of Virginia Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 348 |
| Release Date: | 19 February 2025 |
| Weight: | 0g |
| Dimensions: | 235mm x 156mm x 13mm |
| Series: | Victorian Literature and Culture Series |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
Campbell’s discussion of Solanaceae is erudite and wide-ranging–it touches on such topics as Charles Darwin, picturesque aesthetics, witchcraft, and glass technologies–and although the book operates in the same general vein as Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History (2002), Jack Turner’s Spice: The History of a Temptation (2005), and other more journalistic object microhistories, it’s distinctive in its literary-critical commitment to evaluating references to Solanaceae in all manner of texts, including botanical treatises, newspaper reports, and medical advertisements, as well as poetry and fiction.
–H-EnvironmentAbout The Author
Elizabeth A. Campbell
Elizabeth A. Campbell is Professor Emerita in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film at Oregon State University and the author of Fortune’s Wheel: Dickens and the Iconography of Women’s Time.
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