Trees in Nineteenth-Century English Fiction: The Silvicultural Novel

The Silvicultural Novel is a book about a network of writers and writings that celebrate the aesthetic, socio-political, scientific, ecological, geographical, and historical value of trees and tree spaces in the landscape. It identifies William Gilpin as a significant influence and tracks the impact of this discourse on nineteenth-century environmental writers such as John Claudius Loudon, Jacob George Strutt, William Howitt, and Mary Roberts. It also examines how novelists in the realist mode engage with this discourse to transform their own fictional environments.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 218 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Trees in Nineteenth-Century English Fiction: The Silvicultural Novel explores a longstanding network of writers and writings that celebrate the aesthetic, socio-political, scientific, ecological, geographical, and historical value of trees and tree spaces in the landscape. It also delves into the profound effect of this tree-writing on the novel form in the long nineteenth century.

William Gilpin, a picturesque thinker, emerges as a significant influence in this literary and environmental tradition. His work, Remarks on Forest Scenery (1791), is a blend of his personal observations of trees, forests, and his New Forest home, as well as tree-stories collected from travelers and historians before him. This study traces the impact of this accumulating arboreal discourse on nineteenth-century environmental writers such as John Claudius Loudon, Jacob George Strutt, William Howitt, and Mary Roberts. It also examines its influence on various dialogues surrounding natural history, agriculture, landscaping, deforestation, and public health.

Building upon this concept of an ongoing silvicultural discussion, the monograph examines how novelists in the realist mode engage with this discourse and use their understanding of arboreal space and its cultural worth to transform their own fictional environments. Through their novelistic framing of single trees, clumps, forests, ancient woodlands, and man-made plantations, authors like Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Thomas Hardy feature as authors of particular interest. Collectively, these novelists engage with a broad range of silvicultural conversations in their writing of space at the beginning, middle, and end of the nineteenth century.

This book holds immense appeal to scholars, literary enthusiasts, and anyone with an interest in the intersection of literature, environment, and cultural history. It offers valuable insights into the ways in which trees and tree spaces have been depicted nineteenth-century English fiction, and how this literary tradition shaped the development of the novel form in the long nineteenth century.

Weight: 453g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367747916