ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the very soundscape of Victorian England, and the advances in communication and audio technologies which were at work upon it, transformed hearing in ways that made the possibility of auditory conversion more than merely allegorical. The processes of telegraphy in essence turned the printed word into energy itself, making the "telegraph harp" a powerful and far-ranging instrument. Although there are references to instruments played by the wind dating back to antiquity, the modern Aeolian harp was in fact invented in the seventeenth century by the German Jesuit priest and scientist Athanasius Kircher. By undermining nature and human relationships, modern communications technology, Charles Dickens implies, lends itself rather easily to use by darker forces. While Henry David Thoreau regarded telegraphy as an enhancement of nature and an enabler of the spiritual senses, Dickens sees the technology as usurpers of the natural world, and supplanters of natural communications between men.
