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The Evolutionist
Alternate cover edition of: ISBN 190658253X and 9781906582531
A biographical novel about Alfred Wallace. In the mid-1800s, Wallace explored the remote Amazon and distant Malay Archipelago, collecting beetles, moths, ants and birds -- specimens that sold for pennies apiece in England. However, as Wallace toiled in obscurity, he also investigated ideas that confounded the world’s leading scientific minds.
Then in 1858, Wallace makes the most stunning discovery of his era: evolution by natural selection. Wallace must share equal credit for the theory with Charles Darwin, and finally gains a measure of grudging respect, but acceptance by the scientific community eludes him.
From oppressive jungle to mid-Victorian London, The Evolutionist tells of one man’s determination to seek out his own truth. It is a story of perseverance and inspiration, science and faith, and ultimately, it is about the resilience of the human heart.
A biographical novel about Alfred Wallace. In the mid-1800s, Wallace explored the remote Amazon and distant Malay Archipelago, collecting beetles, moths, ants and birds -- specimens that sold for pennies apiece in England. However, as Wallace toiled in obscurity, he also investigated ideas that confounded the world’s leading scientific minds.
Then in 1858, Wallace makes the most stunning discovery of his era: evolution by natural selection. Wallace must share equal credit for the theory with Charles Darwin, and finally gains a measure of grudging respect, but acceptance by the scientific community eludes him.
From oppressive jungle to mid-Victorian London, The Evolutionist tells of one man’s determination to seek out his own truth. It is a story of perseverance and inspiration, science and faith, and ultimately, it is about the resilience of the human heart.
- GenresBiography
350 pages, Paperback
First published November 3, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 4, 2014
The Evolutionist is a triumph of biographical fiction, an utterly convincing character study of one of the most poignant figures in the history of science: Alfred Wallace, overshadowed by Darwin as originator of the theory of natural selection. Wallace’s status as social outsider, beside the more established standing of Darwin and his connections with Lyell and Hooker (the latter represented by the fictitious composite character Newcastle), conspired to deprive him of fuller credit for his accomplished work in advancing the controversial new theory—especially as the younger Wallace chose to go through Darwin himself to present his paper first explicating it.
The genius of the novel is its convincing immersion in the language of its time, the mid-nineteenth century. Neither dense nor affected, however, the period piece reads as naturally as if its prose were our own. Particularly seamless is the blending of speech by the characters in Wallace’s circle, and the narrative voice portraying the protagonist in third person. To take just one example: “Bates and he had a devil of a time squeezing through the narrow channel.”
The portrayal of Wallace is both sympathetic and complete, fully disclosing his limitations and personal disinclinations in navigating the convention-bound proprieties of scientific approval in the Britain of his time. That very personality, both reticent and principled, endears him to the reader even as it explains the failure of his discovery to pre-empt Darwin’s more celebrated work.
Along the way, the pacing of action, thought and dialogue keeps us engaged in the journey, whether in the muck of the Amazon and jungles of Borneo, or the salons, courtrooms and pubs of London. Sirlin has a deft touch with visual description to complement an unerring taste (“A pill of memory stuck in his throat”) and ear for authentic language. The latter is notable for ringing true in a wide register of social classes and brings the secondary characters to life alongside the fallible hero, Wallace.
Not that Wallace was his only worst enemy. Sirlin uses his lawyer’s skills to chart the mystery of the origins of Darwin’s famous “Origin of Species.” While some of the blame for Wallace’s obscurity lies with his self-effacing humility, and some for an accident at sea, and still more for the constricting mindset of established science, the machinations of Darwin and his associates clearly contrived to bring Darwin’s long-simmering theory to the fore. In this drama, however, even these competitors show compassion and respect for Wallace’s acquiescence; and Darwin himself admits: “Your essay inspired a clarity of vision that had altogether been precluded by my own cowardice.” Thus both key figures are well rounded, Darwin here featuring honest self-disclosure along with his weakness in the matter of bringing the unborn theory forward.
The Evolutionist works as an entertaining read, as a polished literary gem, and as an authoritative exposé of science’s most celebrated “coincidence.” The thorough research appears as it should in the best historical fiction, to make the world and its characters come truly and convincingly alive.
(I reviewed an Advance Readers Copy of this book.)
The genius of the novel is its convincing immersion in the language of its time, the mid-nineteenth century. Neither dense nor affected, however, the period piece reads as naturally as if its prose were our own. Particularly seamless is the blending of speech by the characters in Wallace’s circle, and the narrative voice portraying the protagonist in third person. To take just one example: “Bates and he had a devil of a time squeezing through the narrow channel.”
The portrayal of Wallace is both sympathetic and complete, fully disclosing his limitations and personal disinclinations in navigating the convention-bound proprieties of scientific approval in the Britain of his time. That very personality, both reticent and principled, endears him to the reader even as it explains the failure of his discovery to pre-empt Darwin’s more celebrated work.
Along the way, the pacing of action, thought and dialogue keeps us engaged in the journey, whether in the muck of the Amazon and jungles of Borneo, or the salons, courtrooms and pubs of London. Sirlin has a deft touch with visual description to complement an unerring taste (“A pill of memory stuck in his throat”) and ear for authentic language. The latter is notable for ringing true in a wide register of social classes and brings the secondary characters to life alongside the fallible hero, Wallace.
Not that Wallace was his only worst enemy. Sirlin uses his lawyer’s skills to chart the mystery of the origins of Darwin’s famous “Origin of Species.” While some of the blame for Wallace’s obscurity lies with his self-effacing humility, and some for an accident at sea, and still more for the constricting mindset of established science, the machinations of Darwin and his associates clearly contrived to bring Darwin’s long-simmering theory to the fore. In this drama, however, even these competitors show compassion and respect for Wallace’s acquiescence; and Darwin himself admits: “Your essay inspired a clarity of vision that had altogether been precluded by my own cowardice.” Thus both key figures are well rounded, Darwin here featuring honest self-disclosure along with his weakness in the matter of bringing the unborn theory forward.
The Evolutionist works as an entertaining read, as a polished literary gem, and as an authoritative exposé of science’s most celebrated “coincidence.” The thorough research appears as it should in the best historical fiction, to make the world and its characters come truly and convincingly alive.
(I reviewed an Advance Readers Copy of this book.)
January 3, 2018
A fascinating story in the race for scientific publication and fame, showing the harrowing, lengthy and somewhat pot-luck required to become an eminent scientist. In so many scientific revelations, it is not the work of one person, nor of a team, but a race. This also shows the grim side of discovering the origin of the species over the decades that it took. It's nice to know that it didn't stray too far from the truth and was enlightening, yet sufficiently filled with detail to be entertaining.
October 9, 2014
Alfred Wallace was overshadowed by Charles Darwin as the originator of theory of natural selection. He was not “in with the in crowd” but a quiet, self-effacing, humble outsider who never really stood a chance of having his work taken seriously or published. Wallace was actually is own worst enemy as he didn't have the drive, personality or ambition to see his theories brought to the public's attention. His modesty and humility, as well as being born in the wrong place, were his downfall.
This book, written as a fictionalised biography imagines what the world of Wallace would have been like; the author does well to bring it to life with all the atmosphere and language of the time but for all that I didn't particularly enjoy it. I was aware that this was a fictionalised account, but nonetheless thought it would interest me; however I found the writing dry and heavy, and didn't like the imagined dialogue between characters. I now know that my own taste is, in this area at least, for non-fiction.
It is well written, and an interesting subject, just not to my taste. To give it a low rating on that basis would be unfair.
Thanks to Amazon Vine for a free copy to review.
This book, written as a fictionalised biography imagines what the world of Wallace would have been like; the author does well to bring it to life with all the atmosphere and language of the time but for all that I didn't particularly enjoy it. I was aware that this was a fictionalised account, but nonetheless thought it would interest me; however I found the writing dry and heavy, and didn't like the imagined dialogue between characters. I now know that my own taste is, in this area at least, for non-fiction.
It is well written, and an interesting subject, just not to my taste. To give it a low rating on that basis would be unfair.
Thanks to Amazon Vine for a free copy to review.
June 10, 2016
The Also-Ran
The theory of evolution by natural selection, when proposed at the Linnean Society in 1858, was presented as the joint discovery of Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin. The world, however, refers to these ideas as "Darwinism," and Wallace is largely forgotten. He himself was willing to give credit to the older man, who had been thinking about the theory for two decades. But it was Wallace's draft of an article for publication, sent from the South Pacific where he had been working for many years, that finally spurred Darwin to put his own name forward. Wealthy, well-connected, an established author, and long since accepted among the British scientific elite, Darwin had all the advantages. A largely self-educated man from a lower-middle-class background, a born explorer more at home in the jungle than the study, Wallace came to the field with the trappings of an amateur, and would fight all his life for acceptance in the scientific community, let alone any salaried positions. Recently, however, there have been a number of biographies on Wallace which show his importance to science as much more than being Darwin's runner-up; he was a pioneer in geozoology, for instance, and might be called the grandfather of environmentalism.
This is the background to Avi Sirlin's straightforward and highly readable biography of Wallace. It is fiction only in that it imagines many details of his life and work, but most of its facts are historically true.* It is the portrait, frankly, of one of life's losers. It opens when the ship that is taking Wallace across the Atlantic catches fire, destroying the fruits of several years' work in the Amazon. It continues with his grief over the death of his younger brother, his failure to get appropriate employment back home in England, and his disappointment in love. The final section of the novel, after it would appear that Wallace had achieved some stability in both his professional and family life, shows him throwing it all away on foolish investments, ill-considered theories, and battles that a wiser man would not have enjoined, such as his defense of spiritualism as a proper field for scientific study. It ends with a rather touching meeting between Wallace and Darwin, in which the older man, himself the epitome of caution, warning his former collaborator against throwing away his reputation through his impetuosity. [And yet it was Darwin who obtained for Wallace the government pension that kept his family from starving in his later years.]
I was impressed throughout by the clarity of Sirlin's writing and his ability to conjure up situations and settings. Yet I felt as though the novel had a ceiling that prevented it from touching the stars. I missed the excitement, let alone the verbal poetry, of a book like Roger McDonald's masterpiece Mr. Darwin's Shooter. Even if that is too much to ask for, I got little sense of Wallace's interior life; the few glimpses that Sirlin afforded—for example in his possibly sexual affection for the Malay boy who became his assistant, his befuddled courtship of the daughter of a fellow scientist, or that final meeting with Darwin—made me yearn for more, much more. And if the book is going to make so much of Wallace's spiritualism, I needed to know more about why contact with the other side became so important in Victorian times generally, and, in Wallace's case specifically, why his personal need for the numinous grew even as his scientific objectivity was challenging the more conventional views of God. Sirlin's book is just about as fine as two-and-a-half dimensions can go; but Wallace really requires three or even four.
[I received a PDF of the novel from the publisher in mid-summer; the opinions are my own.]
======
*
There is one thing that puzzles me. Sirlin introduces a leading scientist, Ramsay Newcastle, who serves as Wallace's nemesis throughout the book. I cannot find any reference to him online, though he does seem to have much in common with Joseph Dalton Hooker, who had the same position at Kew Gardens and was a co-sponsor of the Linnean Society paper. I can only suppose that Sirlin changed the name to create a character that could later attack Wallace over spiritualism, which I do not believe that Hooker did.
The theory of evolution by natural selection, when proposed at the Linnean Society in 1858, was presented as the joint discovery of Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin. The world, however, refers to these ideas as "Darwinism," and Wallace is largely forgotten. He himself was willing to give credit to the older man, who had been thinking about the theory for two decades. But it was Wallace's draft of an article for publication, sent from the South Pacific where he had been working for many years, that finally spurred Darwin to put his own name forward. Wealthy, well-connected, an established author, and long since accepted among the British scientific elite, Darwin had all the advantages. A largely self-educated man from a lower-middle-class background, a born explorer more at home in the jungle than the study, Wallace came to the field with the trappings of an amateur, and would fight all his life for acceptance in the scientific community, let alone any salaried positions. Recently, however, there have been a number of biographies on Wallace which show his importance to science as much more than being Darwin's runner-up; he was a pioneer in geozoology, for instance, and might be called the grandfather of environmentalism.
This is the background to Avi Sirlin's straightforward and highly readable biography of Wallace. It is fiction only in that it imagines many details of his life and work, but most of its facts are historically true.* It is the portrait, frankly, of one of life's losers. It opens when the ship that is taking Wallace across the Atlantic catches fire, destroying the fruits of several years' work in the Amazon. It continues with his grief over the death of his younger brother, his failure to get appropriate employment back home in England, and his disappointment in love. The final section of the novel, after it would appear that Wallace had achieved some stability in both his professional and family life, shows him throwing it all away on foolish investments, ill-considered theories, and battles that a wiser man would not have enjoined, such as his defense of spiritualism as a proper field for scientific study. It ends with a rather touching meeting between Wallace and Darwin, in which the older man, himself the epitome of caution, warning his former collaborator against throwing away his reputation through his impetuosity. [And yet it was Darwin who obtained for Wallace the government pension that kept his family from starving in his later years.]
I was impressed throughout by the clarity of Sirlin's writing and his ability to conjure up situations and settings. Yet I felt as though the novel had a ceiling that prevented it from touching the stars. I missed the excitement, let alone the verbal poetry, of a book like Roger McDonald's masterpiece Mr. Darwin's Shooter. Even if that is too much to ask for, I got little sense of Wallace's interior life; the few glimpses that Sirlin afforded—for example in his possibly sexual affection for the Malay boy who became his assistant, his befuddled courtship of the daughter of a fellow scientist, or that final meeting with Darwin—made me yearn for more, much more. And if the book is going to make so much of Wallace's spiritualism, I needed to know more about why contact with the other side became so important in Victorian times generally, and, in Wallace's case specifically, why his personal need for the numinous grew even as his scientific objectivity was challenging the more conventional views of God. Sirlin's book is just about as fine as two-and-a-half dimensions can go; but Wallace really requires three or even four.
[I received a PDF of the novel from the publisher in mid-summer; the opinions are my own.]
======
*
There is one thing that puzzles me. Sirlin introduces a leading scientist, Ramsay Newcastle, who serves as Wallace's nemesis throughout the book. I cannot find any reference to him online, though he does seem to have much in common with Joseph Dalton Hooker, who had the same position at Kew Gardens and was a co-sponsor of the Linnean Society paper. I can only suppose that Sirlin changed the name to create a character that could later attack Wallace over spiritualism, which I do not believe that Hooker did.
April 20, 2015
*NOTE: This is my husband, Seth's review. He is a guest reviewer on my book blog, and is helping me with my NetGalley challenge for the year*
Well what can I say about this book? I liked it, that’s for sure. But when I began reading it, I thought it was going to be something entirely different. I blame my predilection for horrible sci-fi on that. I couldn’t help waiting for the inevitable twist you know? Like, for instance in Congo where the apes turn out to be semi-intelligent beings or something like that. But instead, what I got was a fairly interesting historical fiction about how Wallace goes about his life, and the assertions that he makes independently of Darwin about the origin of species. It’s not a riveting, on the edge of your seat read, but what it is, is a nice read you can curl up in your chair with a cup of coffee to read. As an aficionado of scientific reads, I was not disappointed in this book in the least, and I find it up there in my reading standards. Unfortunately I can’t help shaking the feeling this could have done with a bit more embellishing, maybe with a flying saucer or two thrown into the mix, possibly some vampires. I blame The Last American Vampire for skewing my perception on this one.
Well what can I say about this book? I liked it, that’s for sure. But when I began reading it, I thought it was going to be something entirely different. I blame my predilection for horrible sci-fi on that. I couldn’t help waiting for the inevitable twist you know? Like, for instance in Congo where the apes turn out to be semi-intelligent beings or something like that. But instead, what I got was a fairly interesting historical fiction about how Wallace goes about his life, and the assertions that he makes independently of Darwin about the origin of species. It’s not a riveting, on the edge of your seat read, but what it is, is a nice read you can curl up in your chair with a cup of coffee to read. As an aficionado of scientific reads, I was not disappointed in this book in the least, and I find it up there in my reading standards. Unfortunately I can’t help shaking the feeling this could have done with a bit more embellishing, maybe with a flying saucer or two thrown into the mix, possibly some vampires. I blame The Last American Vampire for skewing my perception on this one.
July 3, 2016
A well-researched biographical fiction of Alfred R Wallace, one of the originators of the theory of natural selection, who was overshadowed by Darwin. Indonesian school children, however, are familiar with his name as we learn about the "Wallace Line" in geography at school. Reading this novel gave me a glimpse of 19th century England, the scientific community, and Wallace's travel to the Amazon and Malay Archipelago (now Indonesia and Malaysia). I'm glad I had the opportunity of meeting the author at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in 2015.
March 4, 2022
Really enjoyed this, but a bit confused about biography v fiction at times
December 20, 2014
“Speothos venaticus ... a jungle dog,” Alfred Wallace informs bewildered sailors gathered around him, on the traits of the webbed feet canine, and several other animals that lay in a caged menagerie on the deck of the sailing ship Helen. These specimens, although much depleted, were acquired by Wallace during his stay in Brazil from 1848 to 1852, and he was returning home to England, expecting fame and fortune from their exhibition and sale. Unfortunately, Helen catches fire in mid-Atlantic and sinks along with Wallace’s entire collection. Although Wallace survives, when his lifeboat is rescued by a merchant ship, he lands penniless with only a tin box of his valuable documents, in London. He has to rely on assistance from his family and his benevolent agent, Stevens. Thanks to some proceeds from the insurance, taken out by Stevens on Wallace’s lost possessions, he is able to secure modest accommodation, although his numerous inquiries with scientific institutions, museums and so on, to seek employment, prove fruitless. The rejections are mainly due to his lack of credentials. At Stevens’ suggestion Wallace takes to writing scientific papers and a book on his experiences in the Amazon.
Wallace attends scientific meetings where his critical questions to the speakers aren’t taken seriously, and his mention of having lost his Amazonian collections at sea are treated with laughter and put down to: “A Robinson Crusoe tale!” However, as luck would have it, at an Entomological Society meeting he catches the eye of Sir James Brook, the Governor of Singapore—on a visit to England—who speaks to him at some length, and concludes with an offer of assistance, should Wallace decide to do scientific research in Borneo. Wallace declines, for he is interested in settling down and raising a family. However in 1854, when he is still unemployed, and unlucky in love as well—a lady breaks her engagement—and his book sells poorly, Wallace has a chance meeting with Charles Darwin, at the British Museum. He decides to follow Darwin’s suggestion, and sails for the unexplored and remote Malay Archipelago, to immerse himself in: “work, to mend the soul and heal the heart.” There, in eight years, he not only regains his mental peace, but also stumbles upon another discovery that would change the World, yet fate throws another arc in Wallace’s path of life.
Avi Sirlin has performed a remarkable task in writing this fictional biography that brings Alfred Wallace to life on the book’s pages. It is as if we walk beside Wallace and his companions, to experience their trials and tribulations. A purely non-fictional dry account may not have enabled us to feel, not only Wallace’s human condition, but also that of his times. Reading the narrative, the sights, sounds and smells of the jungles of Amazon, Victorian London, the Malay Archipelago, and elsewhere, play in our mind. Sirlin’s extensive research shows, not only in the descriptions of the locales, but also in explaining, in simple terms, the biological and botanical aspects of the exotic flora and fauna. Non-scientifically inclined readers, wishing to get an overall understanding of Wallace’s work will find this book useful. But, most of all, Sirlin’s exposé of how Wallace came upon developing his theory of evolution by natural selection, is an enchanting read. Highly recommended.
Waheed Rabbani is a historical fiction author, whose novels are available on Amazon and elsewhere.
Wallace attends scientific meetings where his critical questions to the speakers aren’t taken seriously, and his mention of having lost his Amazonian collections at sea are treated with laughter and put down to: “A Robinson Crusoe tale!” However, as luck would have it, at an Entomological Society meeting he catches the eye of Sir James Brook, the Governor of Singapore—on a visit to England—who speaks to him at some length, and concludes with an offer of assistance, should Wallace decide to do scientific research in Borneo. Wallace declines, for he is interested in settling down and raising a family. However in 1854, when he is still unemployed, and unlucky in love as well—a lady breaks her engagement—and his book sells poorly, Wallace has a chance meeting with Charles Darwin, at the British Museum. He decides to follow Darwin’s suggestion, and sails for the unexplored and remote Malay Archipelago, to immerse himself in: “work, to mend the soul and heal the heart.” There, in eight years, he not only regains his mental peace, but also stumbles upon another discovery that would change the World, yet fate throws another arc in Wallace’s path of life.
Avi Sirlin has performed a remarkable task in writing this fictional biography that brings Alfred Wallace to life on the book’s pages. It is as if we walk beside Wallace and his companions, to experience their trials and tribulations. A purely non-fictional dry account may not have enabled us to feel, not only Wallace’s human condition, but also that of his times. Reading the narrative, the sights, sounds and smells of the jungles of Amazon, Victorian London, the Malay Archipelago, and elsewhere, play in our mind. Sirlin’s extensive research shows, not only in the descriptions of the locales, but also in explaining, in simple terms, the biological and botanical aspects of the exotic flora and fauna. Non-scientifically inclined readers, wishing to get an overall understanding of Wallace’s work will find this book useful. But, most of all, Sirlin’s exposé of how Wallace came upon developing his theory of evolution by natural selection, is an enchanting read. Highly recommended.
Waheed Rabbani is a historical fiction author, whose novels are available on Amazon and elsewhere.
September 24, 2019
I so appreciated this well-researched, entertaining read about the man I've always considered the first theorist of natural selection. (I've always harboured a bit of a dislike of Darwin for stealing his thunder.) This book does a lovely job of exploring that dilemma - and of showing how Wallace had the more gracious and universal view -- the real scientist. I'm totally a Wallace fan now . ;-)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews