Before Einstein

Before Albert Einstein proposed the concept of four-dimensional spacetime, late Victorian scientists, radical philosophers and writers were discussing the possibility of a different kind of fourth dimension. 'Before Einstein' offers the first book-length examination of the impact of pre-Relativity four-dimensional theory on literature and culture at the turn of the twentieth century.

Elizabeth Throesch received her PhD from the University of Leeds in 2007. She has published articles and book chapters on Lewis Carroll, Herbert Spencer and Charles Howard Hinton, among others.

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I:Reading the Fourth Dimension; 1. Imagining 'Something Perfectly New': Problems of Language, Conception and Perception; 2. Constructing the Fourth Dimension: the First Series of the Scientific Romances; 3. The Four-Dimensional Self: Personal, Political and Untimely; Part II:Reading Through the Fourth Dimension; 4. Four-Dimensional Consciousness: the Correspondence between William James and Charles Howard Hinton; 5. H. G. Wells's Four-Dimensional Literary Aesthetic; 6. Exceeding 'the Trap of the Reflexive': Henry James's Dimensions of Consciousness; Afterword; Bibliography; Index.