What if you let a science historian's imagination loose on a novel? Is it still history?
Cyberspace has liberated the Victorians from archives and rare-book rooms, and from the boxes of historical specialism. Their virtual afterlife is waiting to be surfed and searched, their stories to be told.
But whose stories, how told?
Khan's always been an outsider, with fists as sharp as his wits. It's an age of new science and machinery, but also of capital and imperialism. He sees the connections the Victorians try to hide, pulls the levers of imperial power his own way.
Is it history?
Does it change your view of Victorian Britain?
You decide.
Andy Warwick made his career with new stories about the sciences, technology and medicine in the Victorian era, especially new cultures of training and research. Check out the Graphic History and YouTube tabs.
He has taught widely in Europe and North America, first as a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, then as Professor of History of Science at Imperial College, London. He is curretly an Associate Scholar in the History Faculty of the University of Oxford.
