Queen Victoria's Skull: George Combe and the Mid-Victorian Mind

New
Hardcover
2008
$101.44

This is a hugely entertaining study that goes beyond biography to vividly portray Victorian life in a wider framework. Queen Victoria's Skull explores the life and thinking of the Edinburgh phrenologist George Combe. Phrenology is a theory which claims to be able to detect personality traits, character and predisposition to criminality on the basis of the shape of the skull. Now dismissed as risible, it was treated with reverence by many Victorians.George Combe was the author of The Constitution of Man , an ethical treatise that sold over 100,000 copies in Britain and 200,000 copies in America by 1900. The quirkiness of his life and work, and the fact that he befriended and influenced many public figures - from Prince Albert to George Eliot - make for an engaging story. Queen Victoria's Skull , however, does more than tell the tale of one idiosyncratic individual. By tracing the development of Combe's intellectual interests it provides a prism through which to view Victorian culture, science and politics, covering themes of class, religion, sex, crime, art and the theatre. David Stack has written an entertaining and erudite study of an important, and now neglected, Victorian figure.

Synopsis

This is a hugely entertaining study that goes beyond biography to vividly portray Victorian life in a wider framework."Queen Victoria's Skull" explores the life and thinking of the Edinburgh phrenologist George Combe. Phrenology is a theory which claims to be able to detect personality traits, character and predisposition to criminality on the basis of the shape of the skull. Now dismissed as risible, it was treated with reverence by many Victorians.George Combe was the author of "The Constitution of Man", an ethical treatise that sold over 100,000 copies in Britain and 200,000 copies in America by 1900. The quirkiness of his life and work, and the fact that he befriended and influenced many public figures - from Prince Albert to George Eliot - make for an engaging story. "Queen Victoria's Skull", however, does more than tell the tale of one idiosyncratic individual. By tracing the development of Combe's intellectual interests it provides a prism through which to view Victorian culture, science and politics, covering themes of class, religion, sex, crime, art and the theatre. David Stack has written an entertaining and erudite study of an important, and now neglected, Victorian figure.

$101.44

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Edition: illustrated edition
Publisher: Hambledon Continuum
Published: 02 Jun 2008
ISBN 10: 1847252338
ISBN 13: 9781847252333

Media Reviews

. ..Stack's biography of Combe has great merit. It provides an archival basis for many of it judgements, and provides an intelligent picture of a Scot who was, by the standards of time, a publishing sensation, in addition to being a popular lecturer and an effective educational reformer. British Journal for the History of Science, 2009
'This is an interesting insight into the minds of intelligent Victorians.' BBC History Magazine, October 2008 --Sanford Lakoff
Stack's book does a superior job of reviewing Combe's colorful story. Any scholar with a general interest in Victorian intellectual culture would be well served by this text. Beyond academic readers, Stack's book would probably operate well at the graduate level. -Roger Pauly, History: Reviews of New Books, Winter 2009

Author Bio

Dr David Stack is a Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Reading. His work is largely concerned with the interrelationship of science, politics and culture in the nineteenth century. He is the author of The First Darwinian Left.