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2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and also the 150th anniversary of the publication of his most famous work: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Our selected book for February won the 1991 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography. Its authors set out "to portray the scientific expert as a product of his time."
Those of our forum readers who took the popular Open University module An Introduction to the Humanities should already be familiar with the name James Moore.
He wrote study materials about the History of Science, in which he explained that this discipline "specializes in showing how science is historical, how it has been made", and stressed the need "to understand the past as far as possible on its own terms rather than those of the present."
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Using Darwin’s extensive correspondence and the definitive transcription of his Notebooks, Desmond and Moore traced the roots of his ideas and placed the man in context, re-locating him in his age and revealing "the larger world that made Darwin’s evolution possible." Theirs was "a defiantly social portrait."
Darwin was meticulously researched, with an extensive bibliography. The book was hailed both for its immaculate scholarship and its readability.
Of course On the Origin of Species...had a tremendous influence in its day, and its ramifications were far-reaching.
Many critics have discussed Darwin's impact upon literature; therefore, next month we will extend our Darwin theme by exploring the novel Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks.
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Darwin: The biography
Welcome to our book club regulars - and also a warm welcome if you're joining us from over on the Darwin Forum.
This month, we're inviting you to join in reading one of the definitive works on Charles Darwin - Moore & Desmond's Darwin.
Stephanie introduces the book: http://www.open2.net/reading/darwin_moore.html
Amongst the topics you might like to consider:
Is knowing more about Darwin the man essential to understanding his work - or can it actually detract from the 'purity' of the science?
Do the authors succeed in rescuing the man from the pedestal upon which he has been place? (A literal pedestal, if you watched last night's programme which ended with a statue being moved into the Natural History Museum.)
And, more generally, are there any science books which you'd recommend to other forum users?
How is the Darwin's .
evolution threatened by intelligent design
Re: Darwin: The autobiography
Do tell us your view.
Re: Darwin: The autobiography
Many critics have assessed Darwin’s impact upon literature.
Charles Kingsley was receptive to Darwin’s evolutionary theory, hoping that it might be accommodated within his religious belief. In 'The Water-Babies' the oppressed little chimney sweep Tom becomes a water-baby. His physical metamorphosis is accompanied by a moral transformation. As a result of his experiences, he learns how important it is to show kindness to others.
George Eliot was another writer who was profoundly affected by Darwinism. She was particularly interested in his writings about relations and origins – in what Darwin called ‘the inextricable web of affinities’.
Thomas Hardy was one of the first to read 'On the Origin of Species', and immediately grasped its significance. His increasing dissatisfaction with traditional Christian faith echoed that of many contemporaries. As an honest doubter, he advocated high moral standards without acknowledging God as the ground of ethical values. One of the ‘problems’ with reading Hardy is that he did not have a consistent philosophy, preferring to describe his writing as ‘a series of seemings’ and comparing himself to ‘a bewildered child at a conjuring show’. This demonstrates how difficult it was to come to terms with the upheavals caused by challenges to orthodox beliefs.
H.G. Wells was taught biology and zoology by Darwin’s main ‘disciple’, Thomas Henry Huxley (who was known as ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’). Wells found he could no longer accept the account of creation and man’s Fall given in Genesis, or the idea of redemption through Jesus, and this called into question the whole basis of Christianity and of conventional theology. He espoused the cause of Darwinism, and became an advocate of eugenic theory.
Re: Darwin: The autobiography
Re: Darwin: The biography
Hello Stephanie,
Having studied it at ‘A’ level, I have ever since retained a great love of Thomas Hardy’s poetry. There are a small number of them that (I think!) I still know by heart. The criticisms of Hardy’s poetry are persistent, not just inconsistency, but more particularly pessimism. But I am in the school of those who think that what is often read as pessimism is really compassion, which Hardy had in abundance at a time when such a view was not so fashionable. I’m thinking in particular, of course, of ‘To an Unborn Pauper Child’.
I cannot find the reference now, but I do remember reading Hardy’s view that it was a tragic accident of evolution that humanity ever became intelligent enough to understand its own fate. Like Darwin, Hardy lost his faith, but found it a very melancholy thing to do so. His poem ‘Transformations’ is a moving attempt to take a more positive view. In an idle moment in a church graveyard, it takes a view on reincarnation – of a kind.
Another persistent criticism of Hardy, and from some fairly august sources, was that he was actually just a fool who naively believed that he had the first idea about how to write proper poetry. Hardy’s wonderful retort was to describe their poetry as ‘the art of saying nothing in mellifluous polysyllables.’ For anyone who likes poetry but finds it difficult, I would commend Hardy’s poetry as very accessible. ‘The Man He Killed’ is a wonderfully telling comment on the illogic and irony of warfare, but is achieved, in strict rhythm, as a very believable representation of a simple man just expressing his personal feelings. Also about the Boer war, ‘Drummer Hodge’ expresses a very similar idea to Rupert Brooke’s corner of a foreign field some fifteen years or so before Brooke. But Brooke was making a patriotic point. Hardy was interested only in the individual. It is Drummer Hodge himself that portion of that unknown plain will forever be.
There is a wonderful poem Hardy wrote about the sinking of the Titanic called ‘The Convergence of the Twian’. It was written for the program for the benefit concert held to raise money for the relatives of the victims. Hardy was asked to write a poem for the program for that event as one of the eminent literary figures of the day. I suppose that what was expected was a moving elegy to the tragedy of the loss of human life. What they got was a deeply ironic comment on the folly that the whole episode represented. The poem’s title refers to the expression about ‘East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet’. Well this is the convergence of the twain. But the hemispheres are, of course metaphors for, on the one hand man in his vanity ever believing that he could build a ship that was unsinkable; and on the other hand nature, so much more vast, so much more powerful, and making a complete ass of man and his vanity.
Another great favourite of mine was his tribute to his own father ‘On one who lived and died where he was born’. Hardy’s father lived his whole life in the same house and Hardy makes very clever and moving use of that to paint a little vignette of his father.
In any case, that’s just my little survey of some of Hardy’s poetry. I wasn’t actually familiar with the one you quoted Stephanie, so thanks for that.
Re: Darwin: The biography
Hi Ken,
Like you, I am a fan of Hardy’s poetry. I have always been fascinated by his life story too, and particularly his struggle with his beliefs and doubts.
Study of Hardy’s poems reveals such great diversity in subject matter and in style.
Many thanks for your stimulating and thoughtful post, Ken, which I enjoyed very much. I am delighted that you liked ‘On a Fine Morning’.
Re: Darwin: The biography
Thank you Ken - very interesting and well-expressed. I'm off to look out my book of Hardy's poems.
I've just re-read Far from the Madding Crowd and some of the language and description in that are quite lovely too.
Re: Darwin: The biography
Hello marilyn. Hardy’s novels are another interesting contradiction aren’t they? You know he actually hated writing them? He just wanted to write poetry, but as we all know, you can’t make a living writing poetry. So he wrote novels simply because they were more commercial, and earned him the living he needed to enable him to spend more time on his poetry. Which end was successfully achieved, hence his opportunity to take the decision to give up novel writing after the furore caused by Jude The Obscure. But it is difficult to grasp how someone can write such sensitive stories without a pure love of doing so. Tess of the D’Urbivilles is an astonishing novel when you think of the context in which it was written. Hardy was way ahead of his time. The ideas that he was seeking to question prevailed for many years more after the book was published. What a melancholy irony is in that chapter title ‘Maiden No More’.
Re: Darwin: The biography
More on Darwin's influence on literary figures.....
H.G. Wells was taught biology and zoology by Darwin’s main ‘disciple’, T.H. Huxley (who was known as ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’). Wells found he could no longer accept the account of creation and man’s Fall given in Genesis, or the idea of redemption through Christ, and for him this called into question the whole basis of Christianity and of conventional theology.
He was the author of over one hundred books, which of course included science fiction classics such as 'The Time Machine' and 'The War of the Worlds'. He espoused the cause of Darwinism, and he also became an advocate of eugenic theory: the idea that the human race could be perfected through selective breeding.
Darwinism might also shed light on 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson. When Dr Jekyll takes a potion that divides his good and evil aspects, and transforms into Mr Hyde, he turns into a primitive creature. This suggests regression, with Hyde going backwards in the evolutionary chain; but it also begs the question whether Hyde represents man’s true nature, which has been covered up temporarily by the demands of society and civilization. Perhaps this authentic nature will ultimately come to the fore?
Re: Darwin: The autobiography
Thank you for the information - the effect of science and scientific discovery on literature is interesting. I've just been reading Middlemarch where the inter-relationship is evident.
And the controversy continues.
Re: Darwin: The autobiography
I vaguely remember the book - a very interesting read - The Lunar Men (can't remeber the author) where the scientific and literary circles interlinked socially and intellectually.
Re: Darwin: The autobiography
Hi,
Yes it is a really fascinating book. It is by Jenny Uglow, and features the eighteenth-century Lunar Men of the Midlands.
One of them was Erasmus Darwin - grandfather of Charles.
Re: Darwin: The autobiography
Have I misread the title of this thread? I thought people would be making comments on Darwins autobiography.
I read this book a few years ago. I was surprised by the simplistic language used but Darwin does comments that it is just a few jottings to amuse his family.
I didnt think he gave much away about the man he was but it was interesting to read what he thought was most important on his life to tell his children.
I think there was an introduction to the copy I read by one of his relatives.
I would be most interested to hear comments from other people who have read this autobiography as we know so much about his work but not much about the man himself.
Incidently I have read the biography by Adrian Desmond and James Moore several times and rank it the best. Just in case anyone needs to know; it is called "Darwin". (That looks so sarcastic but biographies are not always titled with the name of their subject so forgive, please).
Re: Darwin: The autobiography
I am afraid that someone has put the wrong title on the thread. The purpose of the thread was to discuss Desmond and Moore' s BIOGRAPHY of Darwin, as opposed to Darwin's autobiography.
Many thanks for your contribution, nevertheless, and we will be happy to receive contributions about both the biography and the autobiography.
Re: Darwin: The autobiography
A number of critics have written books about the impact Darwin had on literary figures and their texts. I thought this might also make another angle for us to discuss. If people are interested, I can post some relevant material.