Before Einstein examines the discourse of hyperspace philosophy and its position within the network of new ideas at the end of the nineteenth century. Hyperspace philosophy grew out of the concept of a fourth spatial dimension an idea that became increasingly debated amongst mathematicians physicists and philosophers during the 1870s and 80s. English mathematician and hyperspace philosopher Charles Howard Hinton was the chief populariser of the fourth dimension in Europe and North America. The influence of his writings many of which were published as a series under the title of Scientific Romances ranged surprisingly wide. Before Einstein offers for the first time an extended examination of Hintons work and crucially the influence of his ideas on contemporary writers and thinkers. Increasingly over the past three decades critical attention has been given to the relevance of preEinsteinian theories of the fourth dimension within the shifting aesthetic and cultural values at the turn of the twentieth century. For the first time in a fulllength literary study Before Einstein addresses the cultural life of the fourth dimension at the turn of the century. Before Einstein begins by tracing the development of spatial theories of the fourth dimension out of the new nonEuclidean geometries of the midnineteenth century and proceeds to analyse Hintons role as fourdimensional theorist and populariser of hyperspace philosophy. Hintons Scientific Romances are examined in detail not simply as documents of interest for historians of science and ideas but for their intrinsic literary value as well. Additionally Before Einstein captures the work of H. G. Wells Henry James and William James through the lens of Hintons writing identifying what can be described as a fourdimensional literary aesthetic. The book addresses the existing gap in literary studies of the fourth dimension while also providing scholars of the James brothers and Wells with new ways of approaching their subject m