Reading Behind the Lines: Ghost Texts and Spectral Imaging in the Manuscripts of Alfred Tennyson

This article is among the first sustained applications of multispectral imaging and image processing to the study of modern anglophone literature. It recovers previously unreadable variants in the manuscripts of Alfred Tennyson, pioneers methods of multispectral processing as a literary-critical act in itself, and theorizes the consequences of its restored lines and wider applicability as a new critical method. Digitally stripping away deletions in manuscripts has transformative consequences for our relations with literary archives, turning previously examined collections into untapped repositories of lost literary lines now newly visible. The research goes beyond recovering obscured and environmentally damaged lines, advancing processing techniques for corroding nineteenth-century inks and theorizing its applications for editing and genetic criticism. The article’s conclusion offers a theorization and critical conceptualization of how each of these methods can contribute to the formal and intellectual-historical study of modern manuscripts. The paper therefore advances the future of digital editing and textual criticism as a form of literary criticism, offers a reading of newly restored lines, and theorizes the potential of its new methods for analysis of material composition, preservation, and literary form.