Ann Colley - English

Sinking the Sublime:

Victorians in the Mountains

Ann C. Colley, Professor, Department of English Introduction

Table of Contents

Part One: Tourists, Climbers, and the Sublime

Chapter 1: Sinking the Sublime

Chapter 2: Spectators, Telescopes, and Spectacle

Chapter 3: Ladies on High

Part Two: Literary Figures in the Alps

Chapter 4: John Ruskin: Climbing and the Vulnerable Eye

Chapter 5: Toothpaste and Breadcrumbs: Gerard Manley Hopkins in the Alps

Chapter 6: Snowbound with Robert Louis Stevenson

Part Three: Coda

Introduction

By the end of the 1800s, the mountains that had once been thought

unapproachable, even grimly horrifying, had not only been precisely measured and “conquered” but also institutionalized through maps, guidebooks, and board games that led a player all the way from London to the summit of the Matterhorn or Mont

Chapter 7: The Himalaya and the Persistence of the Sublime

Sinking the Sublime: Victorians in the Mountains examines this

shift from the earlier cult of sublimity that continued to enchant individuals to a perspective in the second half of the nineteenth century that often diminished, compromised, and either consciously ignored or reshaped the experience.

Blanc. New railroad lines also made what was remote much more accessible. And certificates announcing that one had reached the summit of Mont Blanc were almost as easy to find as the sight of people trudging up and down its sometimes dangerous routes. Something had changed.

Part One: Tourists, Climbers, and the Sublime

Chapter 1: Sinking the Sublime

Chapter 2: Spectators, Telescopes, and Spectacle

Chapter 3: Ladies on High

Utilizing the popular understanding of the sublime in the nineteenth century as a focus and as a theoretical context, the first part of the book examines the multiple, and often complex, ways in which Victorians reacted to the assumptions and conventions attending their Romantic heritage. Reflecting upon the various forces that were bringing about change as well as upon the innumerable accounts, images, and satires (especially those that were quick to undercut the popular notions of the sublime) written and sketched by hundreds of visitors and professional writers, Part One discusses these travelers’ reactions to the Alps and to the elevating moments they had expected to experience.

This section of the book also explores the transformation of the mountain from a solitary, sublime object to a spectacular display complete with hordes of observers. Under the influence of tourism and an active culture industry, mountains, especially notable ones such as Mont Blanc, the Jungfrau, or the Matterhorn, began to resemble a sports arena, and the drama of climbing started Mrs. Main after a winter attempt on Piz Morteratsch

to take on the characteristics of the theatrical stage.

Because the sublime is a gendered notion traditionally associated with masculine power, it is only natural that Part One should also consider the ways in which women climbers were regarded in the second half of the nineteenth century. This segment revises current and received opinion that mountains were rigidly stratified and classified according to a person’s sex. Acknowledging that there was indeed prejudice against these women, yet encouraging a more inclusive examination of their history, this portion of Part One argues that Victorian women climbers were not necessarily thought to desecrate the regions of the sublime.

Part Two: Literary Figures in the Alps

Chapter 4: John Ruskin: Climbing and the Vulnerable Eye

Chapter 5: Toothpaste and Breadcrumbs: Gerard Manley Hopkins in the Alps

Chapter 6: Snowbound with Robert Louis Stevenson

Part Two of Sinking the Sublime turns away from a more general view of the Victorians’

experiences with mountains and concentrates upon the individual reactions of three major literary figures to the Alpine scenery. John Ruskin, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Robert Louis Stevenson all spent time in Switzerland; Ruskin, of course, far longer than the other two. The physical movement of their bodies among the mountains and glaciers as well as their aesthetic and scientifically informed responses to the Alps offer a way of understanding not only their feelings about their cultural heritage but also their thoughts about the nature of perception, metaphor, and literary style.

Part Three: Coda

Chapter 7: The Himalaya and the Persistence of the Sublime

Part Three moves to the Himalaya, where British explorers, military men, and naturalists, as well as missionaries and climbers, were struggling to traverse the region’s high passes during the Victorian period. But instead of giving a history of their presence and recounting their impressive and difficult journeys, this part dwells upon their aesthetic responses to the giant mountains.

My conclusion is that the sublime, although threatened and altered, even somewhat diminished, survived, and, furthermore, was at times still available in its most raw and unfiltered state. In the end the sublime was not compromised beyond rescue. Given its enduring potency, it is no wonder that the sublime continues to be an active word in our vocabulary and a concept that still fascinates.