ABSTRACT
This chapter provides essential context for the discussion that follows in the main chapters of the book. Initially, it considers several literary texts written between 1675 and 1830, all of which reflect upon the anecdote of a man who learned to tell the time as accurately as a mechanical timepiece. The abiding fascination with this human clock prompts a consideration of various existing literary critical explorations of time in relation to the literature of the long eighteenth century, and then the particular topics addressed in this book are summarised. Specifically, an overview is provided of how this book examines the way in which certain time-telling devices provided different conceptual architypes for time in works of literature during this period. Intricate patterns of analogical and metaphorical usage emerged in which the various conceptual models deployed all failed to acquire stable connotations in literary texts. Accordingly, this book tries to explain why these objects created such glaring associative and illustrative instabilities.
