ABSTRACT
In The Queen of the Air, his study of Greek myths of clouds and storms, John Ruskin took one of his many swipes at the science of Thomas Henry Huxley. Ruskin, the great art and social critic, widely regarded as one of the period's premier prose stylists, here satirized an opponent in Huxley celebrated for his own satirical brilliance and rhetorical acumen. Satire of science and scientific prose represented only one strand of the complex relationship between literary authors and science during the nineteenth century, though one that paid backhanded tribute to science's growing influence. The long nineteenth century in Britain has long been regarded by literary scholars as a golden age of non-fiction prose. The long-standing focus on Darwin and Huxley has also meant that major scientific figures of the nineteenth century and even many of the leading scientific naturalists have remained under-studied by literary scholars.
