Weird Fiction and Science at the Fin de Siècle

This book explores how nineteenth-century science stimulated the emergence of weird tales at the fin de siècle , and examines weird fiction by British writers who preceded and influenced H. P. Lovecraft, the most famous author of weird fiction. From laboratory experiments, thermodynamics, and Darwinian evolutionary theory to psychology, Theosophy, and the ‘new’ physics of atoms and forces, science illuminated supernatural realms with rational theories and practices. Changing scientific philosoph