Introduction. The Epistemology of Optics: Seeing Subjects, Modern Minds
PART I: REALISM AND THE VISIONARY EYE: BALZAC'S OPTICS OF NARRATION
1. Second Sight and the Authorial chambre noire: Les Chouans, Louis Lambert
2. "Tomber dans le phénomène": Afterimages in La Maison Nucingen and Le Bal de Sceaux
3. Alternative Optics: Séraphita, La Recherche de l'Absolu, and La Peau de Chagrin
4. "Effets de lumière," or a "Second" Second Sight: La Fille aux yeux d'or
PART II: TENEBROUS AFFAIRS: ROMANS POLICIERS AND THE DETECTING EYE
5. Cuvier, Helmholtz, and the Visual Logics of Deduction: Poe, Doyle, Gaboriau
6. Learning to See: Monsieur Lecoq and Empiricist Theories of Vision
7. Sealed Chambers and Open Eyes: Leroux's Mystère de la chambre jaune
PART III: VILLIERS, VERNE, AND CLARETIE: TOWARD A FIN-DE-SIÈCLE "OPTOGRAMMATOLOGY"
8. Death and the Retina: Claire Lenoir, L'Accusateur, and Les Frères Kip
9. Optogram Fiction: Communication, Doubt, and the Fantastic
10. Tropical Piercings: Nationalism, Atavism, and the Eye of the Corpse
11. The Fin-de-siècle Logic of the Afterimage: Hysteria, Hallucination, and Villier's L'Eve future
Epilogue. The Afterimage of Reference: Optics and the nouveau roman
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments