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Episodes of insect life.

Acheta Domestica, M.E.S. (pseud.)
London: Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, 1849-1851

Rare Books & Special Collections
Rare Books Collection RB 595.7 B92

We thank our donor...

Conservation treatment of Episodes of insect life was funded through the generosity of an anonymous donor in February 2017.

Synopsis

The best-known work of a little-known author, Episodes of insect life is essentially an insect chronicle by the British writer and illustrator, Louise M Budgen, who published under the pseudonym “Acheta Domestica”, the feminised, scientific name for house cricket.

Published in three volumes between 1849 and 1851, Episodes of insect life, with its scientific renditions of insects, and their occasional placement in human-like settings, reflects the entomological curiosity and romanticism characteristic of the 19th century.  Insects by their very diversity became marvellous creatures to eulogize, and Budgen, although not a scientist herself, clearly wanted to educate her readers in the science of entomology.  She believed that an insect would become of increasing interest to those who could follow it through its progressive stages, and that’s exactly how she arranged the chapters in her books.  The series makes up the entire entomological year, with volume one covering the seasons between January and April, volume two the seasons between May and August and volume three the remainder of the year.  Each chapter is dedicated to a particular insect or its genus, and opens with a scientific illustration of the subject matter in its natural habitat and ends with a whimsical vignette of an insect portraying human attributes.

The content of the chapters takes on different forms, including poetry, fairy tales, anecdotes and expositions, but each drives home Budgen’s message that for all created things, regardless of their size, “there exists a purpose out of and above themselves.”  In volume one Budgen describes species of crickets, flies, gnats, ants, aphides, moths, butterflies, bees, wasps and spiders, and discusses their sight, hearing and senses of touch, taste and smell.  Illustrations include a magnificent hand-coloured frontispiece of butterflies, depicted in their entire life cycle, and additional colour drawings of crickets, wood-ants, wasps, bees and aphides, among others.  All species are identified using binomial nomenclature and all illustrations show the insects in a taxonomically useful dorsal view, where the back or upper side of the creature appears directly parallel to the reader.  There is a sense of light-hearted humour to this volume.

In volume two of Episodes of insect life, Budgen covers, amongst others, the ladybird, the stag-beetle, the may-fly, weevils, the Brimstone butterfly, the green grasshopper and the “walking branch” (known today as the stick insect).  Particular attention is given to metamorphosis, and to insect habitat during the bright summer months.  Illustrations include a frontispiece of moths and butterflies, and additional colour drawings of moths, caterpillars, fire-flies, beetles and ants.  As in volume one, illustrations preceding each chapter remain scientific in style, with insects surrounded by their natural floral companions.  In the closing vignettes, however, the reader begins to see a change.  Drawings are still humourous but they are less quaint than those of volume one.  This can be seen where Budgen describes an insect’s sensitivity to corporeal pain.  Here, she draws a human skeleton at a smoking cauldron, surrounded by bees attempting to defy death, to remind us that we are never justified, through wantonness, to shorten the life of an insect.  A similarly disturbing vignette appears in the chapter “A summer’s day dream”, in which a spider is depicted entwining a terrified woman in its web – Budgen’s not-so-gentle reminder that we should be more lenient with the spider, as repeated attempts to tackle it with the broom could encourage such an act of vengeance.

In the final volume of Episodes…, Budgen describes insects such as grass- and tree-hoppers, parasites, leaf-cutter bees, scarab beetles and glowworms.  She also touches on “man’s relation to animals” suggesting that our capability to look inwards on ourselves, to identify our responsibilities and areas for improvement, distinguish us from the “lower orders of creation.”  It is fitting, then that the closing chapter vignettes in this volume take on an even more unnatural, metaphorical appearance, with insects frequently depicted in human situations, in themes of prayer and worship and most certainly disconnected from their natural habitat.  In one amusing illustration the leaf-cutter bee is perched at a dining table devouring a leaf using a pair of scissors, while in another a young girl reads a book by the light of the glow-worm lamp.

Equally impressive as the content it houses, is the binding of Episodes of insect of life.  Comprised of blue cloth, pictorially blocked in gold, its design is the work of Thomas Staples.  Central to the illustration is an insect, probably a cricket, who is seated on a mound and teaching those around him.  In his left hand he holds a book, more of which appear at his feet.  He is dressed in knee breeches and stockings and wears a waistcoat, neck cloth and a long-tailed coat.  Around him are various other insects, including moths, butterflies, beetles, flies, bees, caterpillars, grass-hoppers and ladybirds, as well as a large spider and its web.  Each has gathered on the surrounding foliage to listen to the “teacher”.  Blocked in gold at the base of the cover is the phrase “He filled their listening ears with wondrous things”.

Surprisingly, scholars today know little about Budgen.  She was not a scientist, however, she drew with the eye of one, albeit with the occasional hint of whimsy.  She was not a teacher but she was an educator, passionate about inspiring the next generation of amateur entomologists.  She was certainly a capable writer with the ability to switch between scientific and literary prose, essentially combining both rational and romantic tendencies.  Most of all, she was an advocate for the humble insect, and Episodes of insect life formed an important part of her gentle warfare against anti-insect prejudice.

Original Condition

Three pictorial cloth bindings beginning to fray at head and tail of the spines.  Joints and textblocks weak, with some volumes in need of re-sewing.  Several loose leaves, and severe staining to some individual pages, particularly frontispiece and title page of volume three, as a result of previous, inferior repairs with packaging tape.

Restoration by Anthony Zammit

Spines of all three volumes re-lined with cloth, and existing gold-blocked cloth spine and cover re-attached.  Loose leaves and weak textblocks re-sewn.  Packaging tape from prior repairs removed, along with tape residue.  Tape stains minimised.  Japanese paper applied to front and rear endpapers to provide additional support for the joints.  New headband inserted into volume two.

Sources:

Keene, Melanie, Science in wonderland: The scientific fairy tales of Victorian Britain. Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 56-64.

Schachat, S.R., "Drawn before wonderland: Bizarre illustrated insects of the nineteenth century", American entomologist, Fall 2014, accessed online 15 February 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265858408_Drawn_before_Wonderland_Bizarre_Illustrated_Insects_of_the_Nineteenth_Century