ABSTRACT
The study of relationships between nineteenth-century literature and mathematics is something of a Cinderella field compared to the much larger and more established study of literature and sciences such as biology, geology or psychology. The kinds of mathematics taught in the English and Scottish universities, and the level to be achieved, varied considerably from institution to institution, and according to the type of degree being studied. Rachel Feder has rightly pointed out that historicist work on literature and mathematics helps to 'recover a conceptual genealogy that has been effaced by disciplinary divisions'. The relationship between mathematics and poetry is one of the venerable topics in the study of mathematics and literature. Brown's work on Sylvester illustrates to a very interesting moment of change in the relationship between literary history and history of mathematics. Jonathan Farina has pointed out in a stimulating essay on Victorian critical uses of quantitative methods, 'Counting was one of the generic practices of Victorian literary criticism'.
