Benedict points out in her authoritative new study that curiosity
has long been considered a virtue in Western culture, with thinkers
such as David Hume praising it as 'that love of truth...the first
source of all our enquiries'. For even longer though, it's been
perceived as a curse. Think of Eve and Oedipus, Faust and
Frankenstein, says Benedict: 'In literature, empirical
investigation may define the bold explorer, the private eye or the
medical genius, but it frequently denotes naive, corruption, vice
or debility... Often, curious people also become or produce objects
of curiosity.' A professor of English from Connecticut, the author
focuses here on the modern period in England between the late 17th
century and the early 19th century when curiosity rose 'to a peak
of frenzied attention', and journalists, women, social reformers
and middle class consumers started asking questions about the
status quo. 'The curiosity of these social challengers made them
curiosities themselves,' she writes. She notes how curiosity
elicits both applause and horror, unveiling that at its essence is
the seed of ambition. Then there is the 'curious' habit of
collecting, and the paradox of a transgression visually received.
'Curious things or people have a great but hazardous value; their
value is hazardous because they confuse distinctions between the
abstract and material, and they have the potential to usurp common
culture with idiosyncratic concerns,' she concludes. Curiosity
emerged from wonder during the Restoration period, but ambivalence
towards it grew, and later female curiosity became aligned with
specifically sexual exploration. Benedict then charts the
professionalization of cultural inquiry and the way in which
curious observers appointed themselves as connoisseurs, and that
shows that, by the end of the 18th century, curiosity was perceived
as a rebellious impulse which needed to be defused. This is nimble
and highly enjoyable writing, which challenges and enlightens the
reader. (Kirkus UK)
"Pithy and wide-ranging. . . . This study provides a fresh new lens
through which to reinvestigate the whole of early modern English
literature."--"Library Journal"
In this striking social history, Barbara M. Benedict draws on the
texts of the early modern period to discover the era's attitudes
toward curiosity, a trait we learn was often depicted as an
unsavory form of transgression or cultural ambition.
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