Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology, the Geological Sublime, and the Romantic Theatre

Abstract

Across the three volumes of his influential Principles of Geology (1830–33), Charles Lyell demonstrates that the scale of earth history is out of all proportion to human temporality. Lyell makes the case that geologists should assume a viewing position outside the drama of geological action. He repeatedly represents this distance through the figure of the theatre, invoking Romantic critiques of theatrical naturalism that aligned with developments in natural philosophy. At the same time, Lyell deployed technologies from the contemporary stage in his public lectures, and in personal correspondence, he reveals promiscuous tastes across genres, forms and sites of performance. Ultimately, I argue, these apparent inconsistencies point to the role of his subjectivity in a project that is deeply ambivalent about human points of view.