THE WORK OF THE SUN
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THE WORK OF THE SUN LITERATURE, SCIENCE,AND POLITICAL ECONOMY, 1760 1860 Ted Underwood
the work of the sun Ted Underwood, 2005. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-6599-8 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-52928-5 ISBN 978-1-4039-8190-5 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781403981905 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Underwood,T. L. (Ted L.) The work of the sun : literature, science, and economy, 1760 1860 / Ted Underwood. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. English literature 19th century History and criticism. 2. Sun In literature. 3. Politics and literature Great Britain History 19th century. 4. Politics and literature Great Britain History 18th century. 5. Literature and science Great Britain History 19th century. 6. Literature and science Great Britain History 18th century. 7. English literature 18th century History and criticism. I.Title. PR468.383U53 2005 820.9 36 dc22 2005048826 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: October 2005 10987654321
CONTENTS Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations List of Illustrations vii ix xi Introduction 1 1. Light as Fluid Agency 15 2. Energy and the Autonomy of Middle-Class Work 33 3. Apollo, God of Enterprise 55 4. Cowper s Spontaneous Task 89 5. Wordsworth and the Homelessness of Engines 109 6. Sunlight and the Reification of Culture 133 7. Energy Becomes Labor:The Role of Engineering Theory 157 8. Productivism and the Popularization of the First Law of Thermodynamics 179 Notes 193 Bibliography 221 Index 235
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T his book has taken a long time to write;in the process I have accumulated many debts. Conversations with Reeve Parker, Peter Dear, Mark Seltzer, and Harry Shaw inspired the project. Important leads were contributed by M. H. Abrams, Rob Anderson, Aimée Boutin, Jennifer Dakin, Jim Hansen, Nate Johnson, Karen Karbiener, Jeff Kasser,Anne Mallory, Laurie Osborne, Anindyo Roy, Elizabeth Sagaser, Katherine Stubbs, and David Suchoff. Readers, reviewers, and respondents who made a difference include Alan Bewell, Marshall Brown, Morris Eaves, Catherine Gallagher, Peter Manning, Robert Markley, Eric G. Wilson, and Gillen Wood. My editor, Marilyn Gaull, provided patient advice and encouragement. Farideh Koohi-Kamali and Lynn Vande Stouwe supervised production; Maran Elancheran corrected the manuscript. Work on this book was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the English Department of Cornell University. Colby College supported research travel to the Widener and Huntington libraries. The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies supported travel to London, where Mrs. I. McCabe of the Royal Institution assisted me with Humphry Davy s notebooks. The final stages of manuscript preparation were supported by the Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The editors of Modern Language Quarterly have kindly permitted me to reprint a section of chapter 6 that originally appeared as The Science in Shelley s Theory of Poetry, MLQ 58 (1997). Eleanor Courtemanche has been my constant guide to the nineteenth century. This book is dedicated to her.
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ABBREVIATIONS Italics are in the source unless indicated as mine. Translations of French sources are mine unless otherwise attributed. BP William Blake, The Complete Poetry and Prose, ed. David V. Erdman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982). BW George Gordon Byron, The Complete Poetical Works, ed. Jerome McGann, 6 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986). DW The Collected Works of Humphry Davy, ed. John Davy, 9 vols. (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1839). Ex. William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Poetical Works, ed. E. de Selincourt and Helen Darbishire, vol. 5 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966). GW William Godwin, Political and Philosophical Writings, 7 vols. (London: Pickering, 1993). LY The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth:The Later Years, ed.alan G. Hill and Ernest de Selincourt, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978). MY The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: The Middle Years, ed. Ernest de Selincourt, Mary Moorman, and Alan G. Hill, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970). 1805 William Wordsworth, The Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850, ed. Jonathan Wordsworth, M. H. Abrams, and Stephen Gill (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979). All references to The Prelude are to the 1805 text. PrW PW RP William Wordsworth, Prose Works, ed. W. J. B Owen and Jane Worthington Smyser, 3 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974). William Wordsworth, Poetical Works, ed. E. de Selincourt and Helen Darbishire, 2nd ed., 5 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965 1966). Mary Robinson, The Poetical Works, 3 vols. (London: Richard Phillips, 1806).
x SP SPr Task ABBREVIATIONS Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poetical Works, ed. Thomas Hutchinson, new edition corrected by G. M. Matthews (London: Oxford University Press, 1970). Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley s Prose; or, The Trumpet of a Prophecy, ed. David Lee Clark (London: Fourth Estate, 1988). William Cowper, The Task,The Poems of William Cowper, ed. J. D. Baird and C. Ryskamp, vol. 2 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
ILLUSTRATIONS 1.1. Experiment on the respiration of a man doing work, print by Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. Page 42 30 3.1. William Blake, The Song of Los, plate 1. Library of Congress. Page 126 82 3.2. William Blake, The Song of Los, plate 8. Library of Congress. Page 126 83 7.1. Mechanics, Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 13 (Edinburgh: 1810), 121. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. Page 255 165