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Erasmus Darwin: Sex, Science, and Serendipity
Dr Erasmus Darwin seemed an innocuous Midlands physician, a respectable stalwart of eighteenth-century society. But there was another side to him.
Botanist, inventor, Lunar inventor and popular poet, Darwin was internationally renowned for breathtakingly long poems explaining his theories about sex and science. Yet he become a target for the political classes, the victim of a sustained and vitriolic character assassination by London's most
savage satirists.
Intrigued, prize-winning historian Patricia Fara set out to investigate why Darwin had provoked such fierce intellectual and political reaction. Inviting her readers to accompany her, she embarked on what turned out to be a circuitous and serendipitous journey.
Her research led her to discover a man who possessed, according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'perhaps a greater range of knowledge than any other man in Europe.' His evolutionary ideas influenced his grandson Charles, were banned by the Vatican, and scandalized his reactionary critics. But for
modern readers, he shines out as an impassioned Enlightenment reformer who championed the abolition of slavery, the education of women, and the optimistic ideals of the French Revolution.
As she tracks down her quarry, Patricia Fara uncovers a ferment of dangerous ideas that terrified the establishment, inspired the Romantics, and laid the ground for Victorian battles between faith and science.
Botanist, inventor, Lunar inventor and popular poet, Darwin was internationally renowned for breathtakingly long poems explaining his theories about sex and science. Yet he become a target for the political classes, the victim of a sustained and vitriolic character assassination by London's most
savage satirists.
Intrigued, prize-winning historian Patricia Fara set out to investigate why Darwin had provoked such fierce intellectual and political reaction. Inviting her readers to accompany her, she embarked on what turned out to be a circuitous and serendipitous journey.
Her research led her to discover a man who possessed, according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'perhaps a greater range of knowledge than any other man in Europe.' His evolutionary ideas influenced his grandson Charles, were banned by the Vatican, and scandalized his reactionary critics. But for
modern readers, he shines out as an impassioned Enlightenment reformer who championed the abolition of slavery, the education of women, and the optimistic ideals of the French Revolution.
As she tracks down her quarry, Patricia Fara uncovers a ferment of dangerous ideas that terrified the establishment, inspired the Romantics, and laid the ground for Victorian battles between faith and science.
- GenresHistory
336 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2012
About the author
Patricia Fara
24 books74 followersPatricia Fara is a historian of science at the University of Cambridge. She is a graduate of the University of Oxford and did her PhD at the University of London. She is a former Fellow of Darwin College and is currently a Fellow of Clare College where she is Senior Tutor and Tutor for graduate students. Fara is also a research associate and lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. Fara is author of numerous popular books on the history of science and has been a guest on BBC Radio 4's science and history discussion series, In Our Time. She began her academic career as a physicist but returned to graduate studies as a mature student to specialise in History and Philosophy of Science, completing her PhD thesis at Imperial College, London in 1993.
Her areas of particular academic interest include the role of portraiture and art in the history of science, science in the 18th century England during the Enlightenment and the role of women in science. She has written and co-authored a number of books for children on science. Fara is also a reviewer of books on history of science.
Her areas of particular academic interest include the role of portraiture and art in the history of science, science in the 18th century England during the Enlightenment and the role of women in science. She has written and co-authored a number of books for children on science. Fara is also a reviewer of books on history of science.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 11, 2020
Patricia Fara has written a number of accessible history of science titles in the past, for example Science: a four thousand year history and Sex, Botany and Empire - but they have been conventional, if readable, academic titles. In her book on Erasmus Darwin (finally making it into paperback after eight years), she subverts the genre, along the way making it the most enjoyable relatively heavy-duty history of science book I've ever read.
Fara claims in her introduction that her approach was inspired by reading Lolita on a train: one of Humbert Humbert's thoughts inspired her to ponder the nature of history and how the process of uncovering what happened in the past differs from the straight line narrative we usually read. As a result, Fara draws us into the unstructured process of discovery, where new, sometimes serendipitous, findings can send the writer off on a whole new tack. (I say 'claims in her introduction' not in a negative way, but because Fara does warn 'in this book about Darwin, my [fictionalized] personal narratives are not necessarily completely true.')
The subject of the book is Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of the somewhat better-known Charles, best remembered for his long poems on biology and nature - distinctly impenetrable to modern eyes - and as a member of the famous Lunar Society that brought together Midlands natural philosophy enthusiasts at the end of the eighteenth century. Although the book does have some biographical content, the focus is Darwin's writings and particularly on a mocking spoof of his work called The Loves of Triangles, which shifts the focus of Darwin's The Loves of Plants onto mathematical shapes in what is primarily an attack on his politics and to a degree religious beliefs. Along the way, we discover that Darwin was more than a medic who dabbled in biology and slightly prefigured evolutionary theory: there is a strong political thread in his work, including a focus on the abolition of slavery, along with enthusiasm for industry and for sexual themes (with the inevitable modesty of the day).
I confess that as a science writer myself, I am probably an ideal audience for this book. I identify totally with the way that discoveries made during the research and writing can shift the direction of a book as it is written, and require the author to suddenly plunge into a new topic in a way that's delightful for her or him to experience. And there's something refreshingly honest about Fara's admission of struggling with Darwin's stodgy, drawn-out poetical style - something anyone addressing many Victorian novels we are supposed to find wonderful may also have experienced.
If I have a criticism, it's that there isn't enough of this meta-text in the book. Fara sets out to produce a very different form of history of science title - and succeeds - but perhaps too high a percentage of the content has a conventional form and ends up exposing us to repeated exposition of Darwin's principle themes and stodgy versification. However, this doesn't undermine the fact that this is a wonderful way to make the process of exploring the history of science come alive.
This study of Darwin through his didactic poetry uses the approach on a small and relatively insignificant corner of scientific history - I would love to see the same approach, made even more bold and personal, applied to some of the big picture aspects of the subject. For now, though, this was an impressive step forward in a field not always famous for its innovation.
Fara claims in her introduction that her approach was inspired by reading Lolita on a train: one of Humbert Humbert's thoughts inspired her to ponder the nature of history and how the process of uncovering what happened in the past differs from the straight line narrative we usually read. As a result, Fara draws us into the unstructured process of discovery, where new, sometimes serendipitous, findings can send the writer off on a whole new tack. (I say 'claims in her introduction' not in a negative way, but because Fara does warn 'in this book about Darwin, my [fictionalized] personal narratives are not necessarily completely true.')
The subject of the book is Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of the somewhat better-known Charles, best remembered for his long poems on biology and nature - distinctly impenetrable to modern eyes - and as a member of the famous Lunar Society that brought together Midlands natural philosophy enthusiasts at the end of the eighteenth century. Although the book does have some biographical content, the focus is Darwin's writings and particularly on a mocking spoof of his work called The Loves of Triangles, which shifts the focus of Darwin's The Loves of Plants onto mathematical shapes in what is primarily an attack on his politics and to a degree religious beliefs. Along the way, we discover that Darwin was more than a medic who dabbled in biology and slightly prefigured evolutionary theory: there is a strong political thread in his work, including a focus on the abolition of slavery, along with enthusiasm for industry and for sexual themes (with the inevitable modesty of the day).
I confess that as a science writer myself, I am probably an ideal audience for this book. I identify totally with the way that discoveries made during the research and writing can shift the direction of a book as it is written, and require the author to suddenly plunge into a new topic in a way that's delightful for her or him to experience. And there's something refreshingly honest about Fara's admission of struggling with Darwin's stodgy, drawn-out poetical style - something anyone addressing many Victorian novels we are supposed to find wonderful may also have experienced.
If I have a criticism, it's that there isn't enough of this meta-text in the book. Fara sets out to produce a very different form of history of science title - and succeeds - but perhaps too high a percentage of the content has a conventional form and ends up exposing us to repeated exposition of Darwin's principle themes and stodgy versification. However, this doesn't undermine the fact that this is a wonderful way to make the process of exploring the history of science come alive.
This study of Darwin through his didactic poetry uses the approach on a small and relatively insignificant corner of scientific history - I would love to see the same approach, made even more bold and personal, applied to some of the big picture aspects of the subject. For now, though, this was an impressive step forward in a field not always famous for its innovation.
May 2, 2014
Besides the author's lack of explicit thesis, something for which she is well known and has been called on before by NATURE, this work/book/biography? (strike out that which does not apply) has three major errors. First and foremost among the issues is the author's sanctimonious self-righteousness that masquerades, badly, as historical analysis. This sense of moral superiority upon Fara's part seems to be a fad amongst left-wing European academics, and it makes for poor scholarship. Another factor making this a bloody awful book is the narrative mess. Fara can't make up her mind whether she's addressing an academic audience or a popular audience; thus, the prose oscillates between the two poles, destroying the whole work. Worst of all is her supposed "fictionalization" of her research methods. What's to fictionalize? Either she did what she did or she didn't. Of course, mentioning fictionalization calls into question the whole work--as if the other faults didn't already.
Want to Read
September 4, 2012As seen in
Nature
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews