ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a useful modernity into the elegance of the steam era. While Wells and Verne conceived of a futuristic world in the mode of the Victorian era, the neo-Victorian can bring the twenty-first century back into the past and make it run on steam, gears, and strange chemistry. In an era that embraces imprisoning the ghost in the machine, hiding the mechanics behind slick, slim boxes, where the smaller, lighter, less imposing is king. The rise of neo-Victorian literature and, with it, the steampunk movement, seems to be a reaction to the post-Victorian attempt to box and bury the ghost in the machine. Children are drawn to a today in which there are dinosaurs or automatons. Dinosaurs are as real as dragons or automatons, and anything is possible in the mind of a child. The desire to reveal and remain hidden continues to battle for dominance.
