Review by Choice Review
Although James MacPherson's "translations," in the 18th century, of the so-called Ossianic poems of the 3rd century fictitious heroic bard Ossian have long been discredited as fraudulent, these epic verses continue to attract the attention of scholars. The verses were an important influence on 19th-century European Romanticism, the Celtic Revival, and cultural nationalism, and their treatment by "eccentric" Scottish writers paved the way for their introduction in interdisciplinary studies such as this. In a study replete with complicated composite scientific terms, Gidal (Univ. of Iowa) aims to link 18th-century literary history to 19th-century scientific studies in order to comment on ecological and environmental problems of the 21st century. He starts with the songs of ancient peoples and in the remaining four chapters examines 19th-century commentators and their use of statistics, cartography, and geomorphology; considers the use of maps by Celtic scholars to prove and vindicate the adventures, time, and place of the Fingalian heroes; uses geology and archaeological ethnography to prove that the commentaries reflect the concerns of the growing industrial influence on Glasgow and Belfast; and discusses Jules Verne's Le Rayon vert (1882) and travelers (Wordsworth, Mendelssohn) who visited romanticized places such as Fingal's Cave, which was soon to be affected by geological changes and ecological disasters. Summing Up: Recommended. Suitable for researchers. --John Walker, Queen's University at Kingston
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
