Victorian Nightshades: How the Solanaceae Shaped the Modern World

by Elizabeth A. Campbell

A darkly alluring plant family and the arrival of modernity

Victorian Nightshades tells the story of how one plant family--notorious for centuries in England because of its frequently psychoactive and poisonous properties--rose to social and economic prevalence during the nineteenth century. Beginning with bittersweet and belladonna, the Old World species associated with evil, witchcraft, and dangerous women in an era when traditional...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813952549
• ISBN13: 9780813952543
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Length: 348 Pages