This study examines the expression and patterns of alternate history in nineteenth-century Britain and France. “Alternate history” refers to the presentation of events that did not happen in order to consider historical trajectories that might have been and the consequent displacements of present and future. The central chapters of this thesis correspond to the three fields of writing in which these texts are clustered: in narratives of undefeated and resurgent Napoleons, which I trace from the rival journalistic claims made about Napoleon and his historical significance; in accounts that re-imagine the transition from antiquity to modernity, for example by delaying the passage of Christianity from the Middle East to western Europe; and, as part of the plurality-of-worlds debate, in the popular-astronomical imagination of variant versions of human history upon other planets. Three patterns of alternate history are discernible: the romantic-utopian, the critical-reflexive and the linear-chronological. I attach to these patterns the figures of the garden, the map and the dial. These models do not correspond to the three temporal fields of the recent, antique and planetary past, and there is not a straightforward development of these patterns or modes across the nineteenth century; they rather represent a spectrum of purposes for the fictional alteration of the past which occur at various moments and contexts in the century. Alternate history in this period has never been the subject of in-depth analysis. The approach of this study will not absorb such transformations of history into a tradition of futurist writing, as some critics have done. Maintaining alternate history’s distinctness from futurism makes it possible to avoid framing the texts as precursors to science fiction’s historical anticipations. This study will argue that alternate history should instead be recognised as a category of writing that is aware of and concerned with the way that history is written and received, in particular with history’s interactions with other literary forms and the relationships between writing history and other disciplinary fields. More broadly, alternate history should be interpreted in the context of the often described formation of History as a positivist discipline by the late nineteenth century; but far from indicating a steady progression toward scientific historiography, alternate-historical texts reflect upon that transformation and its consequences in other literary fields (journalism, political theory, popular Astronomy, the romance novel) in the century whose “great obsession” is said to have been history.

During the nineteenth century, as today, nausea and vomiting were common signs and symptoms of illness, the interpretation of which contributed to doctors' diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic choices. At the core of this thesis lies the research question: how did medical understandings and management of nausea and vomiting change in the period 1800-1900? In addition to being signs of bodily disorder, nausea and vomiting constituted an individual, typically non-medicalised experience of sickness. As such, a secondary thesis question is: how were nausea and vomiting experienced, interpreted and responded to by sufferers? These questions are pursued through four key themes: physiology, vomit analysis, morning sickness and sea-sickness. Medical textbooks, journals, hospital case reports, newspapers, letters and diaries are the principal source base. Throughout the nineteenth century physiological explanations for nausea and vomiting followed a generally reductionist path. In the 1830s Marshall Hall's reflex theory encouraged new perceptions of the nervous mechanisms involved in nausea and vomiting, and helped stimulate their redefinition into local, central and peripheral causes. Changing physiological explanations for nausea and vomiting were also contemporaneous to the growth of microscopy. This thesis draws attention to the interest nineteenth-century practitioners showed in using vomited matters as pathological fluids. This is explored primarily through a case study of sarcina ventriculi, a vegetable microorganism discovered in fermenting vomit. Responses to this discovery showed that laboratory techniques were largely inapplicable to everyday occurrences of nausea and vomiting. Consequently, neither the increasing localisation of the causes of vomiting, nor interest in vomited matters as pathological fluids, contributed to specificity in diagnoses or treatments. This research thereby demonstrates the cumulative and overlapping nature of nineteenth-century medical cosmologies - 'bedside', 'hospital' and 'laboratory' - and the continuation of the 'clinical art'. The histories of morning sickness and sea-sickness contextualise medical understandings of nausea and vomiting in relation to these transient conditions. They bring to the fore perceptions of health and sickness and show that medical theory was often secondary to cultural beliefs and practices. Specifically, this thesis questions the medicalisation of pregnancy during the nineteenth century and uses experiences of sea-sickness to reveal new features of Victorian understandings of the mind-body relationship. This thesis shows that 'feeling sick' (nausea) was arguably as significant to contemporaries as actually 'being sick' (vomiting). It also confirms the complexity and fluidity of taken-for-granted terms such as: 'patient', 'sufferer', 'disease', 'illness' 'sign' and 'symptom', and, of course, 'sick'. Furthermore, it demonstrates the importance to historians of studying everyday, self-limiting illnesses and morbidity.

Héritière des graines semées depuis la Révolution, la monarchie de Juillet élabore les bases d'une politique patrimoniale dans un contexte de renouveau urbain. Les villes entament un processus de transformation de leur armature pour répondre aux nécessités de salubrité publique et s'adapter aux changements socio-économiques. Dans ce contexte, de nouvelles formes de vandalisme apparaissent. Entre conservation des monuments et salubrité publique, différents acteurs doivent faire consensus. Bien que critiqué, le réemploi apparaît comme la meilleure alternative. Il s'agit de concilier les monuments de l'ancienne France avec les impératifs de la France moderne. De la dénonciation du« beau percé», apparaît la défense d'une physionomie de la ville, avec la notion de paysage urbain. Objet de fierté locale, l'édifice ancien est constitutif d'un capital culturel économique. Paysages et monuments constituent les principaux attraits et atouts d'une ville. Le régime fonde trois organes dédiés aux monuments historiques et favorise l'essor des sociétés savantes. Ces acteurs, dénommés les hussards des monuments historiques, remettent en cause les pratiques de l' Ancien Régime. Face à un vandalisme multiforme, ils élaborent de nouvelles modalités de gestion des édifices prenant en compte plusieurs paramètres, comme l'intégrité. À travers leurs discours, ils invitent à une réflexion nouvelle sur la place et le rôle du monument historique dans un espace urbain qui se régénère en profondeur. Pour atteindre leurs objectifs, des outils de vulgarisation de l'archéologie sont mis en place et diffusés pour former la nouvelle génération et contribuer à une prise de conscience. / Heiress of seeds sowed since the French Revolution, the July Monarchy develops the bases of a cultural heritage policy in a context of urban revival. Cities begin a transformation process of their framework to answer the necessities of the public health and adapt itself to the socioeconomic changes. In this context, new forms of vandalism appear. Between preservation of monuments and public health-, various actors have to reach a consensus. Although criticized, the re-use appears as the best alternative. It is a question of reconciling the monuments of Ancient France with the imperatives of modern France. Of this denunciation of "beau percé", the defense of a face of the city, with the notion of urban landscape appears. Object of a local pride, the building constitutes an economic cultural capital. Landscapes and monuments constitute one of the main attractions and assets of a city. The government establishes three entities dedicated to historic monuments and favors the development of the learned societies. These actors, called "hussars of historic monuments", involve to the practices of Ancien Regime. In the face of a multi-form vandalism, they develop new modalities of management of buildings by taking into account several parameters, of which the integrity. Through their speeches, they invite in a new reflection on the place and the role of the historical monument in an urban space which regenerates in depth. To reach their goals, tools of popularization of the archaeology are set up and spread to train the new generation and contribute to an awareness.

Abîme : gouffre, enfer, chaos. En marge de la civilisation occidentale, ténébreuses et dévalorisées, les profondeurs marines furent pensées et expérimentées au cours du XIXe siècle. Sur le pont du navire, le naturaliste s’appropriait les techniques de pêche et fouillait les antres d'un univers obscur pour récolter une faune méconnue.Cette thèse démontre l'importance de diverses influences, provenant de contextes différents, qui modelaient les théories au sujet de l'existence de vie dans cet univers. L'idée d'une vie limitée, à partir d'un certain niveau de profondeur, domina, notamment avec la théorie azoïque (1843) du Britannique Edward Forbes (1815-1854). Selon nous, elle formait un horizon ultime, telle une finitude anthropomorphique appliquée à la répartition des animaux. Par la suite, la représentation d'une vie présente en tous lieux – une « vie triomphante » – la remplaça au cours de la décennie 1860 pour former la base de notre savoir actuel, à un moment où l'abîme était perçu tel un antre du passé hébergeant des « fossiles-vivants ». Ces représentations constituaient les réverbérations d'une culture et d'intérêts que nous explicitons.Ce travail révèle également une focalisation des savants sur certains objets, comme le fond marin, repère fixe perçu par un filtre terrestre couplé à une analogie avec l'altitude. Le visage bathymétrique de l'océan profond se dessinait alors, tandis que le câble télégraphique devenait une interface de renouveau pour le savoir propre à l'abîme. Une volonté d'ériger un panorama absolu de l'océan parcourait cette période, cela par une extrapolation horizontale (toutes mers) et verticale (toutes profondeurs) de quelques observations relevées. / Abyss : chasm, hell, chaos. On the fringe of the western civilization, the marine depths were regarded as impenetrable and were depreciated before being studied during the 19th century. At sea, the naturalist took over fishing techniques and rummaged through a dark universe to collect an unknown fauna.This thesis shows the importance of the various influences that shaped the scientific theories about the existence of life in the abyss.The idea of a limit for marine life, beneath a given depth, dominated, notably using the azoic theory (1843) of the British Edward Forbes (1815-1854). According to us, this theory was a “final horizon”, that is to say an anthropomorphic finitude placed on the animal distribution. Later, the representation of a life inhabiting every place – a “triumphant life” – replaced it during the 1860s to form the basis of our current knowledge, at a time when the abyss was regarded as a “lair of the past” containing “living-fossils”. These representations were reflections of a culture and of interests.This work also reveals that the scientists focused on some objects like the seabed, which was a fixed mark considered through a terrestrial view linked to an analogy with altitude. The bathymetric face of the ocean emerged while the submarine cable became an “interface of revival” for the knowledge about the abyss. The will to design an “absolute panorama” of the ocean was present in this period, using horizontal (every sea) and vertical (every depth) extrapolations from a few facts.