Science, Reading, and Renaissance Literature

Reviews / Votes

'Nowadays, we tend to think of science and literature as two cultures which have little in common, but Elizabeth Spiller's excellent study, Science, Reading, and Renaissance Literature, explores an age when these disciplines were united by a 'shared aesthetics of knowledge'. Spiller skilfully dismantles our current assumption that 'literature is fiction and science is fact', arguing that early modern writers understood that 'knowledge involves form as well as content ... Spiller's perceptive parallel readings of texts usually kept separate is a valuable addition to scholarship on the early modern period, as well as to the study of science and literature.' The Times Literary Supplement 'Original, learned and compelling. Spiller's superb discussion of Cavendish places her appropriately in very serious company.' Studies in English Literature '... richly-documented pages, written in a clear and pleasant style ...' Cahiers Elisabethains '... a rewarding contribution to the intersections between literature and natural philosophy. ... powerful and rewarding, in large part thanks to her striking combinations of authors within chapters and her vigorous readings of a wide range of texts.' Minerva '... she has opened the door to a complicated and complex area of study. Her linking of these radically different writers in seemingly disparate disciplines, her focus on sensory perception, and her discussion of the generation of knowledge are perceptive and illuminating ... the book is well worth the read.' Dr John Holmes, Lecturer in English, University of Reading