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E-book Victorian Alchemy : Science, magic and ancient Egypt

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Penilaian

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Thus, the fictional ‘Doctor Nosidy, scientist, mesmerist, thought- reader, and electrician’, begins his experiments into communicating with the ‘brain- ether’ of the ancient Egyptian dead.2‘The Strange Discovery of Doctor Nosidy’ is the first of several short stories that make up a collection of tales entitled The Story Hunter: or tales of the weird and wild (1896) by the British stained- glass artist and writer Ernest Richard Suffling (1855– 1911). That The Story Hunter’s front cover features an image of Doctor Nosidy as he attempts to communicate with the mummy laid out before him, which appears again as a frontispiece (figure 0.1), suggests that either Suffling or his publisher were aware that the ancient Egyptian aspect of ‘The Strange Discovery of Doctor Nosidy’ would have particular appeal to fin- de- siècle readers interested in fiction of the weird and wild variety. The ‘weird’ can be understood as a category that emerges at the point of intersection between science fiction and the Gothic: a mode that takes contemporaneous science as a starting point ‘to produce narratives of strange horror’ and which, towards the end of the nineteenth century, was increasingly informed by ‘occult and spir-itualist ideas’.3 The illustration by Paul Hardy (1862– 1942) encapsulates both aspects of the weird. The Gothic and occult are suggested by the unravelled Egyptian mummy lying before the scientist, while the depic-tion of Nosidy himself reinforces an allusion to contemporaneous science encoded in the eponymous doctor’s surname: ‘Nosidy’ reversed spells ‘Ydison’, a clear allusion to the American inventor and ‘electrician’ Thomas Edison (1847– 1931). Hardy’s visual depiction of Nosidy appears to have been based on Edison, too; the man of science is pictured in formal attire, surrounded by and using his inventions, as Edison himself was regularly photographed or illustrated. Nosidy even resembles Edison, though it is something of an unflattering portrait, with an exaggeratedly austere profile and a more advanced receding hairline; in fact, these overstated features indicate something of a textual and illustrative caricature. An illuminated lamp that occupies the space between Nosidy’s head and the face of the ancient Egyptian as depicted on his sarcophagus not only asso-ciates the scientist with light (albeit gas rather than electric), reinforcing the connection with Edison, but serves as a metaphor for enlightenment, as well as symbolising the attempted channel of communication – at once scientific and occult – that Nosidy attempts to open up between these ancient and modern, dead and living, men.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

704.947 DOB v

Penerbit

London : UCL Press., 2022

Deskripsi Fisik

279 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781787358485

Klasifikasi

704.947

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Mythology and Legend

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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