Emma Darwin: The inspirational wife of a genius

by Edna Healey

Much has been written about Charles Darwin but this is the first biography of his strong, intelligent wife whom he referred to as 'twice refined gold'. Emma Wedgwood, granddaughter of the famous Josiah, married Charles Darwin in 1839, three years after he returned from his extraordinary voyage on the Beagle. Their life together was intellectually exciting though overshadowed by personal tragedy. Edna Healey has discovered new, and hitherto unpublished material and has the full support of the Darwin family in writing this major biography.

Genres: Biography, History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2001

About the author

Edna May Healey née Edna May Edmunds, was a writer, lecturer and film-maker married to Denis Healey.

Reviews

[Gayle (OutsmartYourShelf) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A biography of Emma Darwin (née Wedgwood), the wife of naturalist & evolutionist Charles Darwin. Both Charles & Emma (they were first cousins) came from impressive backgrounds with Emma being the granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood of the Stoke potteries fame, whilst Charles was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin, one of the key figures of the 18th century. Both families had their fair share of academics but they were also passionately involved in campaigns such as the abolition of slavery, & animal welfare.

Before reading this book my knowledge of Charles Darwin was rudimentary at best, & I hadn't realised that he suffered so much ill health. I also hadn't heard much about his wife & children at all. The book first goes back to those well-known grandfathers & traces the lives of their descendants. I thought it was mainly interesting but there were occasions where it became a little difficult to keep who everyone was & who was married to whom straight in one's head - even with the family trees at the start. It also became a little dry in places. Overall I did enjoy it though.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really glad I picked up this book and was bought it on a visit to Down House earlier this year. An interesting read about a woman 'at the centre' of many well known families and with connections to many famous names of the time. Excellent portrait of her and the era she lived in.

[Leanda Lisle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why should we be interested in the wife of a genius any more than his first cousin or his best friend? Well, if we are interested in his social and political world we might care to meet the wife that shaped his domestic landscape. Edna Healey also suggests that as ‘ a wife of fame’ Emma Darwin represents a type. But the best reason to read a biography is for the subject to be interesting in her own right – and so just how inspiring was Emma Darwin?

The picture of Emma Darwin on the cover suggests Betsy Duncan Smith in ringlets, an ideal Victorian wife. Not the kind of woman you’d have thought would engage the attention of Edna Healey who, although old enough to be Besty’s grandmother, chose Oxford over Secretarial College. Unfortunately, however, while it transpires that Emma Darwin spoke several languages and read widely, she was also very much the ‘angel in the house’. She tended Charles when he suffered his bouts of flatulence, did good works for small animals and was in short, rather dull.

Healey spends the first two chapters looking into the descent of the Darwins, specifically the talented Wedgewood family, but come chapter three we meet our heroine and things begin badly (for the subject of a biography at any rate). Emma spent her childhood ‘lapped in love’, which gave her ‘ a stability and tranquillity that marked her all her life’. How much I would rather she had to over come something grim. Adored and admired by all Emma was, nevertheless, beginning to look as if she had been left on the shelf when her friend and relative Charles Darwin started to think about marriage.

Ever methodical, Darwin wrote two columns of arguments for and against his marrying. Under the ‘for’ column he put ‘Constant companion, (&friend in old age), who will feel interested in one, - object to be beloved and played with – better than a dog anyhow’. Against he put ‘not forced to visit relatives…Perhaps my wife won’t like London; then the sentence is banishment & degradation into indolent idle fool’. Healey’s book comes to life whenever his words are on the page. Emma, meanwhile, did indeed prove much better than a dog and they became a close and devoted couple. How then, did she influence his work?

Charles described Emma as his ‘wise adviser and cheerful comforter.’ She made his work easier in the sense that she provided a more comfortable environment than he might otherwise have enjoyed and his marriage had some affect on his thought processes. The death of their ten year-old daughter, Annie, confirmed his loss of faith but he accepted that his wife remained a believer and his unwillingness to distress her tempered his agnosticism.

After years of putting up with the smells of plants rotting in green slime and the ‘skeletonising’ of animal or bird carcasses, Emma had to brace herself for the publication of the Origin of Species, but Charles’s book did not overtly reject the idea of a Creator. I am not sure this amounts to Emma inspiring Charles on any level, but if she is in fact, merely the wife of a genius, Edna Healey has none the less managed to produce a gently enjoyable biography.


A version of this review was published in the Spectator.

[Christine Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emma Darwin was a saint! Her life was devoted to her husband, Charles Darwin (who was her first cousin, marriage between cousins being common in England at that time). After Darwin's five-year voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle (during which he was seasick every single day), he returned to England, married Emma, and began working on several books, one of which would change the world. On The Origin of Species revolutionized man's understanding of the creation of the universe with its controversial theory of evolution. Emma, who was a very religious Unitarian, feared for her husband's loss of faith in God's existence, especially after the death of their favorite child, Annie, at the age of ten. Their love overcame their differences, as well as Charles's continued ill-health; he and Emma had ten children, most of whom went on to become successes in their own right. It's an interesting look into Victorian life, as well as the life of this admirable woman.

[Anne Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy going, particularly as the first half of the book is devoted to the enormously complex family tree and linkages between three families. The story gets bogged down in a myriad of relations between brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents, grandchildren to the point where Emma Darwin as an individual gets lost. I had no better idea of her and her intellectual contribution to Charles Darwin's career at the end of the book than I did at the beginning, other than that according to the author she was a paragon of virtue to rival Saint Theresa.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this at a local library sale - and I'm glad that I did! I studied evolution as part of my college course and have always been interested in Charles Darwin, but this was the first time I'd read anything about his wife, Emma.

This starts by looking at Emma's famous family tree - the Wedgewoods and the Allens. It then follows her through her life, to meeting Charles and then to her death. It's really fascinating - she found it hard to reconcile her religious views with his theories on evolution, yet loved him so much that she never bore him ill will for them. There is also so much more to learn about him - how his theory led him to believe that his was his fault that his children were sickly. He had inherited the family ill health, and this was compounded by Emma being his first cousin - realising that this was passed down to his children through 'the machine of evolution' must have hurt him a great deal.

I admit that it took me a while to get through this, some chapters were a bit long and contained tedious family trees and a bewildering cast of characters, but I kept returning to it and am glad that I read it.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this biography of Emma Darwin a nice addition to my extensive reading on the life and work of Charles Darwin, her husband. Healey thoroughly presents the background of both Charles' and Emma's families, establishing their pedigrees (so to speak), their historical context, and their connection before marrying. Both the Darwin and Wedgwood families were well connected and many well-known figures come up throughout the text. Much of the biography focuses on Charles and other family members but through such focus, Healey details the character and relationships of Emma. This biography presents a very human, very well-rounded, and interesting Emma -- a woman and family I would have liked to know. I highly recommend the book for those interested in Emma and her role in Charles Darwin's life, but also, and perhaps more so, for an understanding of Emma, the role of women, the historical times and Emma's relationship to it, and more. Highly recommended.

[Jane Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I applaud anyone who brings a woman out from the shadow of a great man, and this biography is a worthy venture. Emma Darwin was certainly of immense importance to her husband, and thus, probably to the history of science. But her life was mainly about being a wife, mother, relative and paragon of virtue. Her life was comfortable and if she suffered the same griefs as people with fewer privileges it was without the material deprivation which afflicted so many. That, of course, wasn't her fault.

[Gillian]

I'm so glad I read this book. Emma was a woman of her own overshadowed by Charles.

[Robin Hawdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most moving and fascinating biogs I've ever read. Actually inspired me to write my own novel about the Darwins - SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

[Pam Milburn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up, very irritating.