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Apes, angels, and Victorians: The story of Darwin, Huxley, and evolution
Hardcover. No DJ. Pages clean and unmarked. Covers show minor shelf wear. Binding tight, hinges strong.
494 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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February 6, 2019
Time-Life Books once had a book club called the Time Reading Program, which consisted of around a hundred titles, mostly from the twentieth century. Most of them are out of print now, but many are superb and worth searching out. I have thoroughly enjoyed the history and biography selections, and even the science books, which are now decades behind the times, are excellent. These are books that I would have been unlikely to choose on my own, or even to know about. I think of them like recommendations from a highly respected professor who says, “If you liked that, I think you’ll like this too.”
I have not been particularly impressed by the fiction selections, but I cannot recommend highly enough books like Carl Van Doren’s The Great Rehearsal, Giorgio de Santillana’s The Crime of Galileo, Christopher Herold’s Mistress to an Age, George Gaylord Simpson’s Attending Marvels, or Loren Eiseley’s The Immense Journey.
Add to that list William Irvine’s Apes, Angels, and Victorians. It would never have occurred to me to read a dual biography of Darwin and Huxley, but while browsing in a used book store I saw it and recognized it as one of the Time Reading Program books. I bought it and it is absolutely first rate, an engrossing story of science, culture, and two great men.
Most people know the essentials of the story of natural selection: the voyage of the Beagle which formed the germ of an idea, the long years of patient study and accumulation of facts that led to the mature theory, and the hurried publication of the book when Darwin found that Alfred Russell Wallace had come up with the same idea independently. It caused a whirlwind of acclaim and controversy which lasted the rest of his life and, somewhat disappointingly, it is still not universally accepted even today. Most people also know that Huxley, once convinced of evolution, became its staunchest defender. Darwin was too shy, polite, and frail to enter the fray, but Huxley became his bulldog, ready to argue with anyone at any time, and, through brilliant intellect and force of will, gradually won over to his side those who were intelligent enough to understand the issues.
What this book does is to brilliantly fill in the details of that broad outline, showing the steps that Darwin took to close the gaps in his theory and accumulate the overwhelming mass of evidence that it took to sway people from theistic beliefs. For instance, he spent years dissecting barnacles, developing a strong case for them having descended from earlier species by using comparative anatomy. He also spent a lot of time with horse and pigeon breeders, coming to an understanding of how they developed new breeds. “The secret of animal breeding was clearly the selection of desirable variations, which then accumulate, generation after generation, into more and more pronounced characteristics.” He also came to realize that competition is the key mechanism of natural selection, that “Nature breeds a vast oversupply of experiments and then sterilizes the failures by murdering them.”
The original theory had a number of gaps that would not be filled in for decades, such as how to explain altruism or complex structures such as the eye. In response, Darwin sharpened his thinking and extended its application. For instance, when the question of missing links came up, he wrote, “Opponents will say – show them me. I will answer yes, if you will show me every step between the bulldog and the greyhound.”
As is the case even today, much of the criticism of natural selection came from the pious and the dumb; in many cases the two seemed to go hand in hand. However, not all of the objections were trivial or foolish, and in order to succeed the theory would need someone with education, skill, and the ability to clearly and forcefully explain and defend it. That person was, pre-eminently, Thomas Huxley.
It is through Huxley that the reader comes to appreciate not just how elegantly evolution explains nature, but also an understanding of the religious, cultural, and political life of the second half of the nineteenth century. The author brilliantly evokes the personalities and opinions of both evolution’s supporters and its critics, and how the former answered the objections of the latter.
Huxley was one of the greatest minds of the century, and absolutely indefatigable. He was constantly writing, lecturing, teaching, and sitting on commissions and inquiries. He was both a member of the Royal Society and a member of the fisheries commission, and carried out both demanding tasks with skill and intelligence. He seemed to have had the energy of ten men and the intellectual abilities of a hundred. This book rescues him from being a background figure, one of many defenders of Darwin and his ideas, and moves him to the forefront of nineteenth century intellectual thought.
This is a remarkable book. Not many of the things you read are so enlightening, permitting you to see the development, presentation, and refinement of one the the greatest ideas anyone ever had. Without Darwin and Huxley we would probably still be arguing over whether the earth is six thousand years old (even more than we still argue about it today).
There are so many great quotes in this book I have appended some of them below, as well as added page numbers to the ones already mentioned. The page numbers are from hardback edition of the 1982 reprint, ISBN 0-8094-3675-2
“Opponents will say – show them me. I will answer yes, if you will show me every step between the bulldog and the greyhound.” pg 92-3
“The secret of animal breeding was clearly the selection of desirable variations, which then accumulate, generation after generation, into more and more pronounced characteristics.” pg. 93
“Nature breeds a vast oversupply of experiments and then sterilizes the failures by murdering them.” pg. 94
“The old questions of necessity and free will, mechanism and spontaneity, matter and spirit, realism and nominalism, relativism and the absolute were faced all over again and argued in a new light because of The Origin of Species.” pg.101
“The great historical enemy of evolution has been the Platonic tendency – so congenial to logic, morals, and mathematics – to regard the universe as a fixed order, in which realities remain perspicaciously what they are while the mind thinks about them.” pg. 102
The Origin of Species is a long and dignified argument in which, almost with reluctance, the author convinces himself that evolution is a fact and natural selection is its explanation.” pg 109
“In short, the natural order is a very intricate kind of war, in which, basing itself on the limited resources of the planet, superabundant life builds up into a vastly complex and inter-related structure of hunter and hunted, parasite and host, shelter and shelterer, eater and eaten. The slightest peculiarity resulting in better adaptation may permit an individual to survive, reproduce, and in passing on his advantage, strengthen the position of his species.” pg. 111
“Life blindly breeds, battles, and slaughters its way up to mind and rationality.” pg. 111
“Darwin was not always cheerful. On occasion he could feel all of a humanitarian’s moral indignation against man and God for the evils of the world.” pg. 111
“The Tennessee monkey trial would now be an anachronism even in Tennessee.” pg 118 [Alas, if it were only so…]
“Savages firmly believe...in the most fantastic superstitions, but their beliefs do not indicate a fantastic universe, any more than those of civilized man indicate a benevolent one.” pg. 134
“The Deity had become an epistemological inconvenience.” pg 138
“To think wishfully, to rest in comforting illusion when scientific truth is conceivably within reach, is to desecrate both one’s self and the universe.” pg 157
[On the American Civil War] “A brash, unpleasant, vulgar people were fighting for a good principle against a charming, refined, aristocratic people with a bad principle. Moreover, the bad principle meant cheap cotton for British manufacturers; the charming people augmented British wealth, whereas the unpleasant people seemed to threaten British power.” pg 204
“Hypotheses were constantly reaching out into the darkness – slowly, almost inevitably refining and rectifying themselves through empirical contact with reality.” pg 324
“History shows that a religion cannot long survive its deity, nor a type of character the religious dogmas out of which it grew. Moreover, miracles lie at the very basis of Christianity. They are inseparable, on the one hand, from the miraculous biography which embodies the divinity of Christ and on the other, from the dogmas according to which that divinity may be worshipped. The Christian type was not likely to be preserved without the Christian scheme.” pg 393
“Huxley stood doubtful between the ruthlessness of capitalists and the incompetence of politicians.” pg 413
“Science and religion...have been perennially at war. The one studies nature and produces progress. The other explores supernature and produces confusion and darkness. In fact, progress is directly proportionate to the victory of naturalism over supernaturalism.” pg 416
“’Moderate well-being’ may be no more the worthiest end of life than wealth. But if it is the best to be had in this queer world – it may be worth trying for.” pg 418
“Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence of which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle. That principle is of great antiquity; it is as old as Socrates; as old as the writer who said, ‘Try all things, hold fast by that which is good’; it is the foundation of the Reformation, which simply illustrated the axiom that every man should be able to give a reason for the faith that is in him; it is the great principle of Descartes; it is the fundamental axiom of modern science. Positively the principle may be expressed: In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively: In matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable.” pg. 394, Huxley quote from The Nineteenth Century magazine, February 1889.
“[Huxley] persisted in seeing contemporary religious controversy entirely as a battle between agnosticism and ecclesiasticism, between critical honesty and the uncritical acceptance of a comforting illusion. To believe in the Passion, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Sermon on the Mount is simply to believe in angels and fiends, a savior and a devil, a heaven and a hell – in short, in a great deal of worn-out metaphysical furniture.” pg. 397
“The cosmic process, he declares, is a welter of incessant change and for sentient beings, a scene of struggle, suffering, and death. The ethical process, in part at least, substitutes cooperation and curtails suffering. Man has learned to live in comparative harmony with his fellow man and has thus become the dominant animal of the planet. Yet he is only partially emancipated from nature. He still suffers pain, is still struggling against the ape and tiger within him. Naturally he wonders whether there is any ultimate justice or reason for suffering. Jewish culture replies with the counsel of resignation, Greek culture with a moral order administered by gods and goddesses, Indian culture with the doctrine of Karma, by which, through the transmigration of souls, every living creature in one existence or another eventually reaps as he has sown.” pg 425-426
“I am inclined to think,” Huxley wrote Knowles, “That the practice of the methods of political leaders destroys their intelligence for all serious purposes.” pg 438
I have not been particularly impressed by the fiction selections, but I cannot recommend highly enough books like Carl Van Doren’s The Great Rehearsal, Giorgio de Santillana’s The Crime of Galileo, Christopher Herold’s Mistress to an Age, George Gaylord Simpson’s Attending Marvels, or Loren Eiseley’s The Immense Journey.
Add to that list William Irvine’s Apes, Angels, and Victorians. It would never have occurred to me to read a dual biography of Darwin and Huxley, but while browsing in a used book store I saw it and recognized it as one of the Time Reading Program books. I bought it and it is absolutely first rate, an engrossing story of science, culture, and two great men.
Most people know the essentials of the story of natural selection: the voyage of the Beagle which formed the germ of an idea, the long years of patient study and accumulation of facts that led to the mature theory, and the hurried publication of the book when Darwin found that Alfred Russell Wallace had come up with the same idea independently. It caused a whirlwind of acclaim and controversy which lasted the rest of his life and, somewhat disappointingly, it is still not universally accepted even today. Most people also know that Huxley, once convinced of evolution, became its staunchest defender. Darwin was too shy, polite, and frail to enter the fray, but Huxley became his bulldog, ready to argue with anyone at any time, and, through brilliant intellect and force of will, gradually won over to his side those who were intelligent enough to understand the issues.
What this book does is to brilliantly fill in the details of that broad outline, showing the steps that Darwin took to close the gaps in his theory and accumulate the overwhelming mass of evidence that it took to sway people from theistic beliefs. For instance, he spent years dissecting barnacles, developing a strong case for them having descended from earlier species by using comparative anatomy. He also spent a lot of time with horse and pigeon breeders, coming to an understanding of how they developed new breeds. “The secret of animal breeding was clearly the selection of desirable variations, which then accumulate, generation after generation, into more and more pronounced characteristics.” He also came to realize that competition is the key mechanism of natural selection, that “Nature breeds a vast oversupply of experiments and then sterilizes the failures by murdering them.”
The original theory had a number of gaps that would not be filled in for decades, such as how to explain altruism or complex structures such as the eye. In response, Darwin sharpened his thinking and extended its application. For instance, when the question of missing links came up, he wrote, “Opponents will say – show them me. I will answer yes, if you will show me every step between the bulldog and the greyhound.”
As is the case even today, much of the criticism of natural selection came from the pious and the dumb; in many cases the two seemed to go hand in hand. However, not all of the objections were trivial or foolish, and in order to succeed the theory would need someone with education, skill, and the ability to clearly and forcefully explain and defend it. That person was, pre-eminently, Thomas Huxley.
It is through Huxley that the reader comes to appreciate not just how elegantly evolution explains nature, but also an understanding of the religious, cultural, and political life of the second half of the nineteenth century. The author brilliantly evokes the personalities and opinions of both evolution’s supporters and its critics, and how the former answered the objections of the latter.
Huxley was one of the greatest minds of the century, and absolutely indefatigable. He was constantly writing, lecturing, teaching, and sitting on commissions and inquiries. He was both a member of the Royal Society and a member of the fisheries commission, and carried out both demanding tasks with skill and intelligence. He seemed to have had the energy of ten men and the intellectual abilities of a hundred. This book rescues him from being a background figure, one of many defenders of Darwin and his ideas, and moves him to the forefront of nineteenth century intellectual thought.
This is a remarkable book. Not many of the things you read are so enlightening, permitting you to see the development, presentation, and refinement of one the the greatest ideas anyone ever had. Without Darwin and Huxley we would probably still be arguing over whether the earth is six thousand years old (even more than we still argue about it today).
There are so many great quotes in this book I have appended some of them below, as well as added page numbers to the ones already mentioned. The page numbers are from hardback edition of the 1982 reprint, ISBN 0-8094-3675-2
“Opponents will say – show them me. I will answer yes, if you will show me every step between the bulldog and the greyhound.” pg 92-3
“The secret of animal breeding was clearly the selection of desirable variations, which then accumulate, generation after generation, into more and more pronounced characteristics.” pg. 93
“Nature breeds a vast oversupply of experiments and then sterilizes the failures by murdering them.” pg. 94
“The old questions of necessity and free will, mechanism and spontaneity, matter and spirit, realism and nominalism, relativism and the absolute were faced all over again and argued in a new light because of The Origin of Species.” pg.101
“The great historical enemy of evolution has been the Platonic tendency – so congenial to logic, morals, and mathematics – to regard the universe as a fixed order, in which realities remain perspicaciously what they are while the mind thinks about them.” pg. 102
The Origin of Species is a long and dignified argument in which, almost with reluctance, the author convinces himself that evolution is a fact and natural selection is its explanation.” pg 109
“In short, the natural order is a very intricate kind of war, in which, basing itself on the limited resources of the planet, superabundant life builds up into a vastly complex and inter-related structure of hunter and hunted, parasite and host, shelter and shelterer, eater and eaten. The slightest peculiarity resulting in better adaptation may permit an individual to survive, reproduce, and in passing on his advantage, strengthen the position of his species.” pg. 111
“Life blindly breeds, battles, and slaughters its way up to mind and rationality.” pg. 111
“Darwin was not always cheerful. On occasion he could feel all of a humanitarian’s moral indignation against man and God for the evils of the world.” pg. 111
“The Tennessee monkey trial would now be an anachronism even in Tennessee.” pg 118 [Alas, if it were only so…]
“Savages firmly believe...in the most fantastic superstitions, but their beliefs do not indicate a fantastic universe, any more than those of civilized man indicate a benevolent one.” pg. 134
“The Deity had become an epistemological inconvenience.” pg 138
“To think wishfully, to rest in comforting illusion when scientific truth is conceivably within reach, is to desecrate both one’s self and the universe.” pg 157
[On the American Civil War] “A brash, unpleasant, vulgar people were fighting for a good principle against a charming, refined, aristocratic people with a bad principle. Moreover, the bad principle meant cheap cotton for British manufacturers; the charming people augmented British wealth, whereas the unpleasant people seemed to threaten British power.” pg 204
“Hypotheses were constantly reaching out into the darkness – slowly, almost inevitably refining and rectifying themselves through empirical contact with reality.” pg 324
“History shows that a religion cannot long survive its deity, nor a type of character the religious dogmas out of which it grew. Moreover, miracles lie at the very basis of Christianity. They are inseparable, on the one hand, from the miraculous biography which embodies the divinity of Christ and on the other, from the dogmas according to which that divinity may be worshipped. The Christian type was not likely to be preserved without the Christian scheme.” pg 393
“Huxley stood doubtful between the ruthlessness of capitalists and the incompetence of politicians.” pg 413
“Science and religion...have been perennially at war. The one studies nature and produces progress. The other explores supernature and produces confusion and darkness. In fact, progress is directly proportionate to the victory of naturalism over supernaturalism.” pg 416
“’Moderate well-being’ may be no more the worthiest end of life than wealth. But if it is the best to be had in this queer world – it may be worth trying for.” pg 418
“Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence of which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle. That principle is of great antiquity; it is as old as Socrates; as old as the writer who said, ‘Try all things, hold fast by that which is good’; it is the foundation of the Reformation, which simply illustrated the axiom that every man should be able to give a reason for the faith that is in him; it is the great principle of Descartes; it is the fundamental axiom of modern science. Positively the principle may be expressed: In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively: In matters of the intellect, do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable.” pg. 394, Huxley quote from The Nineteenth Century magazine, February 1889.
“[Huxley] persisted in seeing contemporary religious controversy entirely as a battle between agnosticism and ecclesiasticism, between critical honesty and the uncritical acceptance of a comforting illusion. To believe in the Passion, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Sermon on the Mount is simply to believe in angels and fiends, a savior and a devil, a heaven and a hell – in short, in a great deal of worn-out metaphysical furniture.” pg. 397
“The cosmic process, he declares, is a welter of incessant change and for sentient beings, a scene of struggle, suffering, and death. The ethical process, in part at least, substitutes cooperation and curtails suffering. Man has learned to live in comparative harmony with his fellow man and has thus become the dominant animal of the planet. Yet he is only partially emancipated from nature. He still suffers pain, is still struggling against the ape and tiger within him. Naturally he wonders whether there is any ultimate justice or reason for suffering. Jewish culture replies with the counsel of resignation, Greek culture with a moral order administered by gods and goddesses, Indian culture with the doctrine of Karma, by which, through the transmigration of souls, every living creature in one existence or another eventually reaps as he has sown.” pg 425-426
“I am inclined to think,” Huxley wrote Knowles, “That the practice of the methods of political leaders destroys their intelligence for all serious purposes.” pg 438
July 10, 2020
A joint biography of Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley, two men 'linked by an idea that, one developped and the other defended'. Rich in details and informations, finely researched, perfectly structured, this book, although published in 1955, remains a biographical masterpiece for both men. Exploring their works, private lives, opinions and influences, we can here fully grasp the ferocious sagacity and tireless exhuberance of Huxley, at the service of Darwin on the contrary more reserved, discreet, and cautious. The contrast is, by the way, quite amusing.
More than that, the author also manages to dust off a Victorian era tumultuous in discoveries and debates, that are still a real pleasure to follow today. Lyell, Lamarck, Wallace, Cuvier, Owen, Wilberforce and so many others! The greatests and sharpests minds of the time are here arguing with each other about fascinating issues, some still unresolved.
sure, it's long, and, at times, quite difficult. But for whose interested in such topics this book is a biographical jewel -intense, and lively.
More than that, the author also manages to dust off a Victorian era tumultuous in discoveries and debates, that are still a real pleasure to follow today. Lyell, Lamarck, Wallace, Cuvier, Owen, Wilberforce and so many others! The greatests and sharpests minds of the time are here arguing with each other about fascinating issues, some still unresolved.
sure, it's long, and, at times, quite difficult. But for whose interested in such topics this book is a biographical jewel -intense, and lively.
January 21, 2019
A dual intellectual biography of Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley, this book written in the certainty nearly 100 years after The Origin of Species that evolution by natural selection was such established theory that it would never be challenged is an enjoyable read if frequently lost in minute detail. Darwin is of course far more famous to our minds 60 years after this book appeared, but Huxley seems to have played a major role in the rapid spread of Darwinian principles in the 19th Century. I enjoyed the human foibles of each titanic intellect, though their racist and misogynist viewpoints (products of their times as they were) made for a handful of uncomfortable moments in the course of a long and thorough life story.
May 11, 2011
I have limited patience for biography. Autobiography is something different, involving, as I think it necessarily does, fictional allowances. But the biography of a so-called great man by one of his partisans edges inevitably over the borders of hagiography. (Boswell succumbs too in the Life of Johnson but his book is saved by being primarily a transcript of conversations.) Irvine’s book – so well written and so engaging in its first hundred pages, falls into this trap when the author gets too comfortable referring to Darwin as “the master.”
That said, Irvine marshals a stunning wealth of passages and quotes from letters, journals, lectures and published works of Darwin and Huxley (among others). In his choice and presentation of these, he succeeds, I think, in “putting us there” and drawing the immediate history of an idea that wasn’t perhaps so new but whose formulation was revolutionary, and the crises of personal and cultural conscience that followed.
That said, Irvine marshals a stunning wealth of passages and quotes from letters, journals, lectures and published works of Darwin and Huxley (among others). In his choice and presentation of these, he succeeds, I think, in “putting us there” and drawing the immediate history of an idea that wasn’t perhaps so new but whose formulation was revolutionary, and the crises of personal and cultural conscience that followed.
January 14, 2025
9...years....later...
I finally finished reading this book lol. Despite how long it took me, I really did enjoy reading it! It was quite witty and well-written. Darwin and Huxley are both very funny in their writing, and the narration was as well. I frequently laughed out loud reading in, and learned a lot about the theory of evolution and both men.
I finally finished reading this book lol. Despite how long it took me, I really did enjoy reading it! It was quite witty and well-written. Darwin and Huxley are both very funny in their writing, and the narration was as well. I frequently laughed out loud reading in, and learned a lot about the theory of evolution and both men.
January 25, 2010
I like it so far, the writer is good. The subject matter is a little dry though. Uneventful. No one gets caught with a high-class prostitute.
August 18, 2018
This book is way too long, too densely written, and yet does not provide that much additional or more nuanced I formation than other shorter works about Darwin. The events covered in the chapters are not presented in chromological order, which I think some students would find confusing. A huge portion of the book is about Huxley, so if you're interested in a Darwin biography, this book probably isn't for you.
June 27, 2024
Excellent book, although (written in 1955) sometimes the language and attitudes feel a bit antiquated, and sometimes Irvine indulges in flights of prose that are unnecessary. Note that although it certainly touches on evolution, and it does a decent job detailing Darwin's discoveries and biography, the book is more than half about Huxley's life as a hectoring social observer and activist, including his dedication to issues other than evolutionary theory.
November 30, 2022
A revolution in evolution.
You probably know what Darwin had for breakfast. But what do you know about the contribution of Thomas Henry Huxley? What do we know of the man and not just his work?
The book contains several photos and a portrait of Huxley. We also get a picture of the Beagle and Darwin.
You probably know what Darwin had for breakfast. But what do you know about the contribution of Thomas Henry Huxley? What do we know of the man and not just his work?
The book contains several photos and a portrait of Huxley. We also get a picture of the Beagle and Darwin.
May 4, 2022
I have had this book on my shelves literally for decades and I'm now a bit sad that it took me this long to getting around to reading it. It turns out to be beautifully written and extremely clarifying on the subject of relating scientific ideas to the state of Victorian culture. William Irvine considers the lives and the ideas of both Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley, beginning just after the appearance of The Origin of Species, when Huxley became indispensable to Darwin, but then doubling back to fill in Huxley's biography, which is not as well known as Darwin's.
In the second chapter Irvine writes: "Nobody would have been surprised if Huxley had explained evolution. Nearly everybody who has read the fact is a little surprised that Darwin did, and clever people from Samuel Butler to Mr. Jacques Barzun have demonstrated that he shouldn't have." This kind of pithiness persists through the entire book. Irvine's prose requires a fair amount of a priori knowledge of history, 19th century English letters, and the canon of Western learning in general, so it may not be for everyone. But as an aging liberal arts graduate I enjoyed it.
The shape of the narrative is non-linear. After we learn about Huxley's life before his embrace of the debate over evolution, we return to Darwin. Because his early life is so well known, Irvine does not bother to retell the story in any detail, but he does spend a great deal of time showing just how productive the adult Darwin was in spite of being chronically ill. Apes, Angels & Victorians was published in 1955 and Irvine makes no effort to diagnose the nature of Darwin's persistent ailment, but he does imply that it had a psychosomatic component. Nevertheless, he does not belittle Darwin in anyway. On the contrary, he shows him to be a man who knows his own capabilities and his own limitations and works with them to get where he needs to go.
Huxley is in many ways Darwin's opposite both temperamentally and with respect to his origins. Thomas Huxley came from the middle class and did not receive an Oxbridge education; he was very much a self-made man. Like Darwin, he did go on a lengthly sea voyage as a young man, but whereas Darwin sailed as a gentleman companion to the captain, Huxley served as a surgeon's assistant. Throughout his life Huxley needed to earn money to support himself and his family. To that end he was a constant engine of activity, accepting multiple teaching and then administrative positions while cranking out essay after essay for periodicals. Darwin, in contrast, inherited a large fortune and lived comfortably and at remove from the hurly-burly of Victorian professional life. It was largely a surprise that he actually added to his fortune with the surprising success of both The Origin of Species and his subsequent books.
As ill as he was for so many years, Darwin lived to age 73 and was felled by a series of heart attacks. Although a whirlwind of activity, Huxley frequently exhausted himself physically and was also prone to periods of depression. Irvine recounts many instances of Huxley complaining of being elderly and infirm throughout the entire second part of the book, and the reader is quite surprised that when he passes away Huxley is only 70 years old.
Anyone who wishes to better understand how English culture produced the theory of natural selection, the mechanism that Darwin advanced as the driver of organic evolution, and why that culture was resistant to the idea once it was advanced, would do well to read this book. The resistance, it turns out was part of a general backlash during the mid-19th century against the more broad-minded Romanticism of the earlier century, which not coincidentally was the period during which both Huxley, but especially Darwin, grew up.
Apes, Angels & Victorians is full of contextual explanations like this and is well worth reading nearly 70 years after it was written. It is particularly useful for Irvine's willingness to describe both Huxley and Darwin's strengths and weaknesses.
In the second chapter Irvine writes: "Nobody would have been surprised if Huxley had explained evolution. Nearly everybody who has read the fact is a little surprised that Darwin did, and clever people from Samuel Butler to Mr. Jacques Barzun have demonstrated that he shouldn't have." This kind of pithiness persists through the entire book. Irvine's prose requires a fair amount of a priori knowledge of history, 19th century English letters, and the canon of Western learning in general, so it may not be for everyone. But as an aging liberal arts graduate I enjoyed it.
The shape of the narrative is non-linear. After we learn about Huxley's life before his embrace of the debate over evolution, we return to Darwin. Because his early life is so well known, Irvine does not bother to retell the story in any detail, but he does spend a great deal of time showing just how productive the adult Darwin was in spite of being chronically ill. Apes, Angels & Victorians was published in 1955 and Irvine makes no effort to diagnose the nature of Darwin's persistent ailment, but he does imply that it had a psychosomatic component. Nevertheless, he does not belittle Darwin in anyway. On the contrary, he shows him to be a man who knows his own capabilities and his own limitations and works with them to get where he needs to go.
Huxley is in many ways Darwin's opposite both temperamentally and with respect to his origins. Thomas Huxley came from the middle class and did not receive an Oxbridge education; he was very much a self-made man. Like Darwin, he did go on a lengthly sea voyage as a young man, but whereas Darwin sailed as a gentleman companion to the captain, Huxley served as a surgeon's assistant. Throughout his life Huxley needed to earn money to support himself and his family. To that end he was a constant engine of activity, accepting multiple teaching and then administrative positions while cranking out essay after essay for periodicals. Darwin, in contrast, inherited a large fortune and lived comfortably and at remove from the hurly-burly of Victorian professional life. It was largely a surprise that he actually added to his fortune with the surprising success of both The Origin of Species and his subsequent books.
As ill as he was for so many years, Darwin lived to age 73 and was felled by a series of heart attacks. Although a whirlwind of activity, Huxley frequently exhausted himself physically and was also prone to periods of depression. Irvine recounts many instances of Huxley complaining of being elderly and infirm throughout the entire second part of the book, and the reader is quite surprised that when he passes away Huxley is only 70 years old.
Anyone who wishes to better understand how English culture produced the theory of natural selection, the mechanism that Darwin advanced as the driver of organic evolution, and why that culture was resistant to the idea once it was advanced, would do well to read this book. The resistance, it turns out was part of a general backlash during the mid-19th century against the more broad-minded Romanticism of the earlier century, which not coincidentally was the period during which both Huxley, but especially Darwin, grew up.
Apes, Angels & Victorians is full of contextual explanations like this and is well worth reading nearly 70 years after it was written. It is particularly useful for Irvine's willingness to describe both Huxley and Darwin's strengths and weaknesses.
November 22, 2014
There are far better biographies about Charles Darwin and Charles Huxley available than this. The author assumes the reader is deeply familiar with the Victorian era, which was a big mistake. He tries to make a lot of jokes about some of the drier material, but the jokes wind up being more confusing than funny. The author wanders from the original subject, which gets annoying. Perhaps this would have been better off as two books.
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November 24, 2010So far, really goofy: lovely and witty fake-victorian spake makes it entertaining. many of the same anecdotes and ideas expressed in other Darwin biographies with a huge emphasis on the intellectual climate of the time and Darwin's discourse in letters with pretty much every heavy hitter of the time.
March 3, 2013
i really enjoyed readind this. Author showed every detail of Darwin and Huxley's lives. He summed up their treatises, life situations, their perspectives, briefly about everything. The book has showed me some aspects of evolution, which i properly did not understand. Recommend this book to everyone!
June 1, 2013
A joint biography of Darwin and Thomas Huxley, who was very influential in increasing acceptance of Darwin's theory. The author does a good job discussing how the ideas were perceived in the context of the times and also gives a good sense of the personalities of the two men. Pretty well written and easy to read.
March 9, 2008
This is a short biography of Charles Darwin. It tracks his achievements but doesn't talk enough about his inner thoughts. It is interesting how easily he dismissed the ramifications of his theory. After all evolution is only a theory. Right!
June 9, 2008
This book was part of the Time Reading Program from Time-Life Books.19e century England and the effects of the writings of Darwin and Husley are well portrayed. A very good historical essay on that period.
May 9, 2011
Mine is the Time 1963 reprint of the 1955 original. The glue is so bad on these early Time Inc. books that to open one out is to have it crack in half.
March 30, 2013
Very densely written, but thorough account of the life of and relationship of Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley. I abandoned it about a third of the way through.
February 18, 2013
Interesting look into the lives of these fascinating individuals.
September 3, 2012
At the current rate, I will finish this book sometime in 2016...
March 30, 2015
4.5 stars. Really dense, but really well written.
May 16, 2015
First published in 1955 as a joint biography of Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley.
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