Need a cozy sweatshirt, bookish tote, or mug? Get one at the BookBrowse Merch Store!

Coleridge's Frost at Midnight and The International Dark Sky Association

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Brilliant by Jane Brox

Brilliant

The Evolution of Artificial Light

by Jane Brox
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • First Published:
  • Jul 8, 2010, 368 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jul 2011, 368 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Coleridge's Frost at Midnight and The International Dark Sky Association

This article relates to Brilliant

Print Review

Brilliant provokes much thought on a variety of topics: circadian rhythms; the health dangers of light exposure; the depiction of natural and man-made light in art (Brox discusses three of Van Gogh's night paintings and explains what light and darkness was like for him.); the Columbian Exhibition; the eccentric and visionary Nikola Tesla; the effect of light on the lives of women; etc. I leave it to each reader to explore those topics that interest him most.

Brilliant illuminated a favorite poem of mine, Coleridge's Frost at Midnight, in which the speaker describes a flame as "companionable," "unquiet," "a fluttering stranger" whose restless and mysterious movements exhibit a human sympathy. Post Brilliant, Coleridge's moonlight and the frost beneath is whiter and more lucid; the small flame is a living chemical blue, its movement more animated and mysterious, the darkness more opaque in its "silentness." Here is the first stanza:

The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud - and hark, again! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits
Abstruser musings : save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.
'Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,
This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood,
With all the numberless goings-on of life,
Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame
Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not;
Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,
Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature
Gives it dim sympathies with me who live,
Making it a companionable form,
Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit
By its own moods interprets, every where
Echo or mirror seeking of itself,
And makes a toy of Thought.

Brox ends her book contemplating the effect of too much illumination. The International Dark Sky Association is trying to preserve the darkness for astronomers and the rest of us: Founded in 1988, IDA is the first organization to call attention to the hazards of light pollution and "promote[s] one simple idea: light what you need, when you need it."

Filed under Cultural Curiosities

Article by Jo Perry

This "beyond the book article" relates to Brilliant. It originally ran in September 2010 and has been updated for the July 2011 paperback edition. Go to magazine.

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Dream Count
    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    A searing new novel from the bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists, exploring four women's desires.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Raising Hare
    by Chloe Dalton

    A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, and loss through one woman's friendship with a wild hare.

  • Book Jacket

    Fagin the Thief
    by Allison Epstein

    A thrilling reimagining of the world of Charles Dickens, as seen through the eyes of the infamous Jacob Fagin, London's most gifted pickpocket, liar, and rogue.

  • Book Jacket

    Jane and Dan at the End of the World
    by Colleen Oakley

    Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.

  • Book Jacket

    Girl Falling
    by Hayley Scrivenor

    The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.

  • Book Jacket

    The Antidote
    by Karen Russell

    A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.

  • Book Jacket

    The Dream Hotel
    by Laila Lalami

    A Read with Jenna pick. A riveting novel about one woman's fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

Who Said...

A library is a temple unabridged with priceless treasure...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

B O a F F T

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.