Book review: Kept from all contagion: germ theory, disease, and the dilemma of human contact in late nineteenth-century literature by Kari Nixon

In Kept From All Contagion: Germ Theory, Disease, and the Dilemma of Human Contact in Late Nineteenth- Century Literature, Kari Nixon offers a new literary history exploring how late-nineteenth-century authors represented the conflict between the risk of contagion and vital social contact in a period which saw germ theory rise to public prominence. This is a skilled literary analysis for our time, writes Jodie Matthews, and is fascinating reading for anyone hoping to put the current COVID-19 pandemic in historical context