Filth: Dirt, Disgust, and Modern Life Book

One of the most engaging books on sound I've read this year, "Victorian Soundscapes" examines the changing attitudes toward sound throughout the Victorian era by concentrating on the literature of the time. While previous knowledge of the written works referred to would obviously make this book's conclusions even clearer than they already are, prior knowledge of the texts discussed isn't necessary. Some of the works analyzed include Dickens' "Dombey and Son," George Eliot's "Daniel Deronda," Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Voice of Science," Bram Stoker's "Dracula," and Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." Along the way, other writings and events woven into the analysis include the writings on acoustics by Hermann von Helmhotz; the anti-immigrant cartoons of Punch magazine's John Leech; the far-fetched theories about sound and the atmosphere put forth by father of the computer Charles Babbage; the saga of Thomas Carlyle's attempt to design and build the first soundproof study in London; the histories of the development of the telephone, phonograph, and gramophone; and the origin of the painting "His Master's Voice" featuring the Victor Dog.

In Picker's thoroughly researched book, Walter Benjamin's modernist conceptions of authenticity and aura are foreshadowed by the Victorian obsession with the new technology to record speech, with poets like Tennyson using their own phonographs to record libraries of their own voices. The noise made by street musicians becomes a battlefield for the rising middle class, and Cage's 4'33" is presaged by George Eliot's take on repression in the traditional Victorian roles of wife and husband. Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell are shadowy background characters as the impact of recording and listening technological developments begins to be felt in the literature of the period, with plenty of factual information about the first recordings of music and voice to back up the literary analysis that is the book's focal point.

This is a fascinating cross-disciplinary study of sound and literature, history and fiction. Anyone interested in sound theory, Victorian literature, or the development of modern technology will most likely find something of worth in this amazing book. Very highly recommended.