Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker

by A. N. Wilson

Overview

A radical reappraisal of Charles Darwin from the bestselling author of Victoria: A Life.

With the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin—hailed as the man who "discovered evolution"—was propelled into the pantheon of great scientific thinkers, alongside Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton. Eminent writer A. N. Wilson challenges this long-held assumption. Contextualizing Darwin and his ideas, he offers a groundbreaking critical look at this revered figure in modern science.

In this beautifully written, deeply erudite portrait, Wilson argues that Darwin was not an original scientific thinker, but a ruthless and determined self-promoter who did not credit the many great sages whose ideas he advanced in his book. Furthermore, Wilson contends that religion and Darwinism have much more in common than it would seem, for the acceptance of Darwin's theory involves a pretty significant leap of faith.

Armed with an extraordinary breadth of knowledge, Wilson explores how Darwin and his theory were very much a product of their place and time. The "Survival of the Fittest" was really the Survival of Middle Class families like the Darwins—members of a relatively new economic strata who benefited from the rising Industrial Revolution at the expense of the working classes. Following Darwin’s theory, the wretched state of the poor was an outcome of nature, not the greed and neglect of the moneyed classes. In a paradigm-shifting conclusion, Wilson suggests that it remains to be seen, as this class dies out, whether the Darwinian idea will survive, or whether it, like other Victorian fads, will become a footnote in our intellectual history.

Brilliant, daring, and ambitious, Charles Darwin explores this legendary man as never before, and challenges us to reconsider our understanding of both Darwin and modern science itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062433510
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/27/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	445
Sales rank:	769,310
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

A. N. Wilson grew up in Staffordshire, England, and was educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is a prolific and award-winning biographer and celebrated novelist. He lives in North London.

Table of Contents

Prelude 1

1 A Symbol 7

2 The Old Hat 19

3 What He Owed to Edinburgh 35

4 Cambridge: Charles Darwin, Gent 65

5 The Voyage of the Beagle 86

6 'Blackbirds … gross-beaks … wren' 111

7 The Ladder by Which You Mounted 145

8 Lost in the Vicinity of Bloomsbury 161

9 Half-Embedded in the Flesh of their Wives 183

10 An Essay by Mr Wallace 216

11 A Poker and a Rabbit 234

12 Is It True? 247

13 The Oxford Debate and its Aftermath 258

14 Adios, Theory 275

15 Immense Generalizations 321

16 Evolution Old and New 331

17 Mutual Aid 351

Acknowledgements 369

Illustration Credits 371

Notes 373

Bibliography 401

Index 423

Editorial Reviews

12/01/2017
Historian and biographer Wilson (Victoria) is known for alternative readings on his subjects, and his latest work takes this to an extreme. From the opening sentence, "Darwin was wrong," Wilson builds a case for his subject (1809–82) as a self-promoter who cobbled together "his" theory of evolution from the ideas of others—including Darwin's own grandfather—without due credit. Wilson's claim that Darwin handpicked facts to fit preconceptions is also this book's shortcoming, confusing Darwin's building on previous theories with plagiarism and his reluctance to engage in theology with evasiveness. There are ad hominem swipes: Darwin is weak-willed, a hypochondriac, a habitual liar. And while Wilson doesn't quite blame Darwin for contemporary eugenics, he does implicate "the Darwin brand." He allows that Darwin readily admitted inconsistencies in what was, after all, always labeled a theory, but such acknowledgments are buried deep in the text. Wilson's prose is lively, with extensive research offering a useful road map of the era's emergent science. But his contentious reappraisal of the theory gets lost in its relentless criticism of the man. VERDICT This could round out a strong collection of Darwin material but should be well balanced by more straightforward works.—Lisa Peet, Library Journal

Library Journal

10/09/2017
British biographer and novelist Wilson (The Victorians) makes two important claims as he opens this iconoclastic biography: “Darwin was wrong” and “I am not a scientist.” Though Wilson works hard to prove Darwin wrong, his lack of science background and factual errors derail his main thesis. Wilson draws heavily on Michael Denton’s 1985 book, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, but omits that this creationist text has been widely debunked. Wilson also makes some shocking claims that would surprise virtually all active biologists: “Mendel’s theory ,” he writes,” is really lethal to Darwinism,” and molecular genetics was “able to demonstrate the inadequacy of Darwinism as an explanation for the evolutionary process.” Other assertions are so inaccurate that they can’t be attributed to his lack of a science background. For example, Wilson concludes that a 1954 paper by Australian zoologists supports Lamarck’s theory of evolution when the actual paper explicitly states otherwise. Wilson describes Darwin as unwilling to acknowledge his predecessors, yet Darwin did exactly this in the American edition of On the Origin of Species. Darwin is portrayed as a hypochondriac filled with a “towering ambition” who deserved to become “the hero of pigeon-fanciers” rather than the “torch-bearer of the modern branches of life-sciences.” The book’s many errors make it hard to take seriously. Agent: Anna Stein, Aitken Alexander Associates. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

The prolific novelist and biographer probes the character and controversies of Charles Darwin’s life and the controversial theory that turned the world on its head…. An illuminating new biography of a legendary figure in the scientific world whose legacy continues to draw reappraisals.” — Kirkus

“Though Darwin’s all-encompassing theory is now widely regarded as paradigmatic science, Wilson provocatively considers it a quasi-religious credo—like Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto—ultimately doing more to shape political attitudes than to advance scientific understanding…. Sure to spark debate.” — Booklist (starred review)

From the Publisher

A book to treasure. A. N. Wilson throws down the gauntlet on the very first line: ‘Darwin was wrong,’ he begins. What follows is a sharply observed and wonderfully compelling analysis that evokes the Victorian titan brilliantly and challenges received wisdom. A work of scholarship that is hard to put down.”

award-winning author of Princes at War Deborah Cadbury

Hugely enjoyable…Wilson unpicks Darwin’s contradictions with a scientist’s forensic skill and a novelist’s imaginative touch.”

Spectator (UK)

Narrator Richard Burnip has a pleasantly fluid, agile British voice with just the right touch of bemused irony for both the subject and the author’s style…Burnip maintains a steady, though urbanely inflected and mellifluous, measure.”

AudioFile

As a historian trying to put Darwin in the context of his time, there is surely no better biographer than Wilson.”

Times (London)

Though Darwin’s all-encompassing theory is now widely regarded as paradigmatic science, Wilson provocatively considers it a quasi-religious credo—like Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto—ultimately doing more to shape political attitudes than to advance scientific understanding…Sure to spark debate.”

Booklist (starred review)

A lucid, elegantly written, and thought-provoking social and intellectual history.”

Evening Standard (London)

Wilson offers a critical rather than wholly laudatory biography of the scientist who brought the theory of evolution into public awareness. Narrator Richard Burnip has a pleasantly fluid, agile British voice with just the right touch of bemused irony for both the subject and the author’s style. He sets off quotations with a slightly deeper tone but doesn’t give the various speakers distinct voices. The main drawback of this production is Burnip’s almost painfully deliberate pacing. Whether Darwin is clambering about in the Galapagos or confined to a London sickbed, Burnip maintains a steady, though urbanely inflected and mellifluous, measure. C.M.A. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2018 - AudioFile

2017-09-13
The prolific novelist and biographer probes the character and controversies of Charles Darwin's life and the controversial theory that turned the world on its head.Wilson (The Queen, 2017, etc.) writes that Victorian England, deep into the Industrial Revolution, "was ready for a theory of nature which revealed everything in existence to be in a state of becoming, rather than fixed arrival." Born into an upper-class family, Darwin followed in the footsteps of his father and attended medical school. However, he was more intrigued by the natural world than human bodies, and when he was given the opportunity to join an exploratory voyage, he took it. The huge collection of natural specimens that Darwin amassed on this five-year voyage was, in Wilson's eyes, his greatest achievement. After settling down to a quiet country life with his family, Darwin formulated the theory of evolution that he would lay out in On the Origin of Species and further develop in The Descent of Man. Wilson thoroughly analyzes the various facets of Darwin's life for influences both conscious and unconscious. While Darwin is usually credited with the theory of evolution, another scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace, actually came up with the theory at the same time. Both found inspiration from a tract about human population by Thomas Malthus. While most of us now take evolution as a given, there were plenty of questions left open, some of which Darwin himself recognized. The study of genetics has answered some of these questions, but the idea of evolution as the "survival of the fittest" continues to be challenged. Integrating a wealth of biographical details with in-depth discussions of the criticisms and arguments around Darwinism, Wilson helps readers understand how Darwin was an almost inevitable product of his times. As he writes, "the idea…that he alone was responsible for the scales falling from the eyes of the human race is a piece of mythology."An illuminating new biography of a legendary figure in the scientific world whose legacy continues to draw reappraisals.

Kirkus Reviews