The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture

Bruce Haley

Published by Harvard University Press 1978

The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture

Bruce Haley

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674284746

Overview
Contents

About this book

Health obsessed the Victorians. The quest for health guided Victorian living habits, shaped educational goals, and sanctioned a mania for athletic sports. As both metaphor and ideal, it influenced psychology, religion, moral philosophy; it affected the writing of history as well as the criticism of literature. Here is a wide-ranging and ably written exploration of this fascinating aspect of Victorian ideas.

Bruce Haley looks at developments in personal and public health, and at theories about the relation between medical and psychological disorders. He examines influential conceptions of the healthy man: Carlyle's healthy hero, Spencer's biologically perfect man, Newman's gentleman-Christian, Kingsley's muscular Christian. He describes the development of sports and physical training in nineteenth-century England and their importance in schools and universities. He traces the concept of healthy body and healthy mind in boy's fiction (such as Torn Brown's School Days), self-help literature, and the widely read novels of George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, George Meredith, and Charles Kingsley. All these strands of social history, literature, and philosophy are woven together into a seamless whole.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
PART ONE. Sound Body, Sound Mind
CHAPTER 1. Introduction: Victorian Health Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
CHAPTER 2. Mens Sana in Corpore Sano: Victorian Psychophysiology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
CHAPTER 3. The Thoroughly Healthy Mind: Victorian Criticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
CHAPTER 4. Obeying the Laws of Life: Carlyle and Spencer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
CHAPTER 5. Types of Healthy Christianity: Newman and Kingsley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
PART TWO. The Healthy Man
CHAPTER 6. The New Era: Victorian Sport and Training Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
CHAPTER 7. Growing Up Healthy: Images of Boyhood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
CHAPTER 8. Anarchy and Physical Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
CHAPTER 9. Two Staunch Walkers: Tom Thurnall and Tom Tulliver Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
CHAPTER 10. The True Gentleman and the Washed Rough in Broadcloth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
CHAPTER 11. The Athlete as Barbarian: Richard Feverel and Willoughby Patterne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
CHAPTER 12. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	252
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Copyright year: 1978
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 296
Keywords: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain; LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; LITERARY CRITICISM / General; Public health -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Physical education and training -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674284746

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1978
ISBN: 9780674284739