The Powers of Distance

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Exploring the interplay between detachment and engagement in Victorian culture, Amanda Anderson analyzes how figures like George Eliot and Oscar Wilde grappled with moral dilemmas arising from cultivated distance. The book delves into practices of objectivity in social science, artistic realism, and cosmopolitanism, revealing the progressive potential of these Enlightenment ideals. Through a revisionist lens, Anderson defends detachment as a valuable and aspirational approach within the complexities of nineteenth-century British literature and thought.