Scents and Sensibility: Perfume and Literature in the Victorian Era
A talk with Catherine Maxwell
May 10, 2018
What did the Victorians think about perfume? How does it feature in literature of the period?
This talk gives an overview of perfume use in the second half of the nineteenth century, with reference to a diverse and intriguing range of poems. Join us at the IAO as we host Catherine Maxwell for an exciting talk about an important historical era.
Frangipani
Perfume! That lingerest round the throat,
Between the breasts and in the hair
I kiss, and risest up to float
About the room, a southern note
Of sultry isle and swooning air,
Thou leavest on the languid skin
Outworn with nights of amorous toil,
A spice of health that blossoms in
Hot lands that tropic fragrance win
From marvellous flowers and scented oil.
Thou bring’st from far away to me
The savour of spice and southern palm,
Of naked wild-foot girls that flee
By sunlit fountains and the calm
Low murmur of a burning sea.
Theodore Wratislaw, Caprices
(London: Gay and Bird, 1893), p. 35
ATTENDANCE DETAILS
Date: Thursday, May 10
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Cost: $15.00
Location: The Institute for Art and Olfaction
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ABOUT CATHERINE
Catherine Maxwell is Professor of Victorian Literature at Queen Mary University of London, and author of The Female Sublime from Milton to Swinburne: Bearing Blindness (Manchester University Press, 2001), Swinburne (Northcote House, 2006), Second Sight: The Visionary Imagination in Late Victorian Literature (Manchester University Press, 2008), and numerous articles on Victorian literature. She was a Leverhulme Major Research Fellow for 2014–2016, during which time she completed her latest monograph, Scents and Sensibility: Perfume in Victorian Literary Culture, published by Oxford University Press in October 2017.