Mountain Gloom And Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics) [Paperback]

Marjorie Hope Nicolson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics | Publication Date: November 14, 2011

Considers the intellectual renaissance at the close of the 17th century that caused the shift in the portrayals and perceptions of mountains in prose and poetry, from ugly protuberances to glorious heights. Examines various writers from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and traces both the causes

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When we look at a majestic scene in nature, it is hard to believe that our appreciation of its beauty would have been completely foreign to an observer four centuries ago. In Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory, Marjorie Hope Nicolson argues that the rise of an aesthetic appreciation of nature's grandeur in English writing did not originate with exposure to Italian landscape painting, Orientalism, or the concept of the sublime in art, as have been postulated. Rather, Nicolson demonstrates a direct line of sentiment from Henry More, to Thomas Burnet, John Dennis, Anthony Shaftesbury, and Joseph Addison, and then to the Romantics, in which modern concepts such as infinity and regularity gradually develop into an acceptance of the magnificence of nature as a reflection of God. Originally published in 1959, this book's reprinting demonstrates the importance of its standing in the history of aesthetic ecological thought.

Review

Any book with the words "aesthetics" and "infinite" in its title might seem a bit intimidating, but Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory is a trek across cultural history that is well worth taking. Originally written in 1959 and recently released as a Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classic, which re-prints editions of key works that explore human relationships with the natural environment, Mountain Gloom has been hailed by landscape historians and nature writers over the years as a unique work of research, and fresh and acute in its critical presentation. Author Nicolson, who died in 1981, deliberately and intelligently supports her position that mountains were portrayed as ugly symbols of God's wrath by the English poets and writers of the 17th Century and their predecessors. Two hundred years later, though, poets and writers were describing the majesty, beauty, power and glory of the mountains. Nicolson considers the radical shift in thinking that led to this, and the implications of how abstract or scientific thought can alter emotions and the human experience, in general. Equally adept at arguing her case on scientific, cultural or historical grounds, Nicolson concludes that the great heritage of infinity and eternity reflected in literature lays a powerful foundation for generations of writers to come. Her work should also serve as an inspiration for those interested in the role of human insight in nature. -- From Independent Publisher

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Product Details

• Paperback: 428 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press (November 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295975776
• ISBN-13: 978-0295975771
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #815,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Treasured Favorite Book, June 25, 2001

By 

Freddie D. Cox "fearoflemmings" (Annapolis, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mountain Gloom And Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics) (Paperback)

This book is my favorite book. I remember the first time that I read it. I would have to get up from my desk, walk around my apartment, and digest what I was reading. It was so exciting.

Nicolson brings together Theology, History of Science and Geology, and Aesthetics in such a beautiful way. She describes what was an important change in western thinking about nature that occured at the end of the seventeenth century.

Ignore, William Cranon's introduction that ties Nicolson's work to today's ecocriticism. But find and read other works that study nature and culture; Clarance Glacken's Traces on the Rhodian Shore (1967), Arthur O. Lovejoy's The Great Chain of Being (1936), and Leo Marx's The Machine in the Garden (1964).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book should be reissued, June 25, 2008

By 

Maureen P. Sherlock (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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Over the past 40 years I have returned to this work again and again. I have lectured on it and referred a lifetime of students to it. To learn that there were peoples who saw mountains as hideous scars marring the face of the sacred never failed to inspire reflection upon the too easily digested metaphor.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mystery of Attitude to Wild Places, June 15, 2010

By 

Rosemary S. Antel (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mountain Gloom And Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics) (Paperback)

I paint images of wild places where I have been. To me, they are the most beautiful and uplifting sights I have ever seen. However, visitors to my studio ofter appear ill at ease or uncomfortable in the presence of these paintings. I wanted to know why. I saw this title and bought it and read it to answer the question.

This book really explained the basis and history of the common man's feelings when confronted by mountains. Opinions and attitudes at different times in history are defined and put into the context of contemporary religious, philosophical and literary teaching. The extensive footnotes led me to other sources as well.

From this, I gathered that it is the very infinity of the spaces and the feeling of helplessness that man feels in their presence that creates the Mountain Gloom and the same sublime infinity that is deemed aesthetic that creates the Mountain Glory. However, I could be misinterpreting the author. I still don't understand my visitors' reactions to my images, unfortunately, but I now have more clues.

Beautifully documented and lush with illustrative poetry, a scholarly book to read and reread. I wish it had some visual images however.