Darwin"It is like confessing a murder." These are the words Charles Darwin uttered when he revealed to the world what he knew to be true: that humans are descended from headless hermaphrodite squids. How could a wealthy gentleman, a stickler for respectability, attack the foundations of his religion and Anglican society? Authors Adrian Desmond and James Moore, in what has been hailed as the definitive biography of Charles Darwin, not only explain the paradox of the man but bring us the full sweep of Victorian science, theology, and mores. The authors unveil the battle over the mind and soul that raged around the student Darwin as well as his drunken high-life in prostitute-ridden Cambridge. They vividly re-create Darwin's five-year voyage on the Beagle and his struggle to develop his theory of evolution. Then, they follow Darwin through his decades of torment. Fully aware that his ideas could bring ruin and social ostracism to his beloved family, Darwin kept his thoughts secret for twenty years. Seeming to lead an ideal squire's life in rural Kent, he was actually a man "living in Hell," plagued by trembling, vomiting, and violent cramps and confronted by personal tragedy that left him grief-stricken for the rest of his life. But even more than Marx and Freud, this anguished man was to transform the way we see ourselves on this planet. Desmond and Moore's rich, comprehensive, and unparalleled portrait of his life contains a wealth of newly transcribed and unpublished letters, a thorough understanding of all available Darwin research, and ninety photographs, many never published before. Its lively and accessible style makes each chapter as gripping to read as a novel, yet the legitimacy and importance of this seminal work is never diminished--providing the whole story of how Darwin came to his world-changing conclusions and how, when the Origin of Species was finally published, its consequences were far more dramatic than Darwin's worst fears ... and wildest dream. |
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Contents
Catching a Falling Christian | 5 |
The Northern Athens | 21 |
SeaMats Seditious Science | 31 |
Anglican Orders | 45 |
Paradise Punishment | 61 |
The Man Who Walks with Henslow | 74 |
Every Man for Himself | 84 |
18311836 | 99 |
My Water Doctor | 363 |
Our Bitter Cruel Loss | 375 |
A Gentleman with Capital | 391 |
Ugly Facts | 405 |
Gunships Grog Shops | 417 |
Horrid Wretches Like Me | 431 |
A Low Lewd Nature | 441 |
What Would a Chimpanzee Say? | 451 |
My Final Exit | 101 |
A Chaos of Delight | 115 |
Troubled Spirits from Another World | 132 |
Shaken Foundations | 149 |
Colonial Life | 163 |
Temples of Nature | 182 |
18361842 | 193 |
A Peacock Admiring His Tail | 195 |
Reforming Nature | 212 |
Tearing Down the Barriers | 229 |
Mental Rioting | 240 |
Marriage Malthusian Respectability | 256 |
The Dreadful War | 280 |
The Extreme Verge of the World | 301 |
Murder | 313 |
Illformed Little Monsters | 339 |
Al Diabolo | 351 |
Breaking Cover | 467 |
More Kicks than Halfpence | 485 |
From the Womb of the Ape | 500 |
A Living Grave | 519 |
Emerald Beauty | 536 |
Sex Politics the X | 550 |
Disintegrating Speculations | 566 |
Pause Pause Pause | 589 |
A Wretched Bigot | 607 |
Never an Atheist | 622 |
Down among the Worms | 638 |
The Final Experiment | 652 |
An Agnostic in the Abbey | 664 |
679 | |
Bibliography | 740 |
773 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Anglican animals Annie April Asa Gray Autobiography barnacles Beagle beetles birds British Calendar Cambridge Cambridge University Library Charles Darwin Charles's Christianity Church College Darwin's Journal Darwinian death Descent Desmond Diary Doctor Edinburgh Emma Emma's England Erasmus Erasmus Darwin evolution evolutionary Fanny father fear feeling FitzRoy fossil friends Fuegians garden geological Hensleigh Henslow Hooker human Huxley Huxley's island Jenyns knew Lamarck laws lectures letter living LLJH London looked Lubbock Lyell Maer Malthusian Martineau mind Mivart months moral Museum Natural History natural selection naturalist nature's never Notebooks Origin Origin of Species Owen Owen's parish plants political radical reform religious Revd Royal scientific Sedgwick ship Shrewsbury sister Society species talk theory thought tion told took Tory town transmutation turned Unitarian University Wallace wanted Wedgwood week Whig William X Club young Zoological
Popular passages
Page 743 - Gradus ad Cantabrigiam; or, New University Guide to the Academical Customs, and Colloquial or Cant Terms peculiar to the University of Cambridge; observing wherein it differs from Oxford.