This work is Volume 1 of an extensive two-volume monograph on the
interplay of science and literature in Europe from the eighteenth to the
early twentieth centuries. It comprises a series of some twenty
biographies raisonnées of literary figures known to have had
fascination for, at times an obsession with, science. The linguistic
base is broad, primarily French, German and English, but with excursions
into Italian, Spanish and Russian. Alongside outstanding individuals,
the work chronicles the intellectual movements Naturphilosophie,
Naturalism, Positivism, etc., which literature gave rise to through its
interaction with science.