Amy M. King

I write about nineteenth-century British literature and science, especially pre-Darwinian natural history and botany. I am a Professor of English at St. John's University in New York City.

I am the author of Bloom: The Botanical Vernacular in the English Novel (Oxford, 2003) and The Divine in the Commonplace: Reverent Natural History and the Novel in Britain (Cambridge, 2019). I’ve written the introductions and notes for the Barnes and Noble editions of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure and Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters. Other work includes the essay on “George Eliot and Science” for The Cambridge Companion to George Eliot (2nd edition).

I've written a new book, which is about plants in the novels and poetry of the Brontė sisters. A Brontė Botany: Flora in the Classic Novels of the Brontė Sisters (UniPress, 2026) also contains 60 original illustrations by the botanical artist Tugce Okay. It is forthcoming in the fall of 2026.