Darwin the Writer
Published on 30. June 2011
Book
Hardback
266 pages
978-0-19-960843-0 (ISBN)
Description
Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, arguably the most important book written in English in the nineteenth century, transformed the way we looked at the world. It is usually assumed that this is because the idea of evolution was so staggeringly powerful. Prize-winning author George Levine suggests that much of its influence was due, in fact, to its artistry; to the way it was written. Alive with metaphor, vivid descriptions, twists, hesitations, personal exclamations, and humour, the prose is imbued with the sorts of tensions, ambivalences, and feelings characteristic of great literature. Although it is certainly a work of "science," the Origin is equally a work of "literature," at home in the company of celebrated Victorian novels such as Middlemarch and Bleak House, books that give us a unique yet recognisable sense of what the world is really like, while not being literally 'true'. Darwin's enormous cultural success, Levine contends, depended as much on the construction of his argument and the nature of his language, as it did on the power of his ideas and his evidence. By challenging the dominant reading of his work, this impassioned and energetic book gives us a Darwin who is comic rather than tragic, ebullient rather than austere, and who takes delight in the wild and fluid entanglement of things.
Reviews / Votes
The passion with which he writes is engaging and, while enthusiastic, never excessive ... through his analysis of key elements of Darwin's writing and showing how they impacted on other literary authors, Levine is able to demonstrate a new way to read Darwin's works - as literature ... Levine's approach enables Darwin to be examined for his prose alone and demonstrates why the way in which Darwin's ideas were presented was, and remains, so significant ... Through this passionate and tireless work, he puts forward an excellent case for simply reading Darwin. * Katherine Ford, British Society for Literature and Science * This marvelling, attentive study not only paints Darwin in the round: it reminds us of the importance of language in shaping modern science, and gets us asking again what makes great literature. * Angelique Richardson, Times Literary Supplement * Its success springs from the form of its argument and the nature of its language as well as from the power of its ideas. * Jonathan Smith, Review 19 * Triumphantly, George Levine's latest Darwinian study shows why both men should be read, and enjoyed - by those who deny evolution, and those who take it for granted. Rarely is textual analysis so exhilarating. * Christopher Hawtree, The Independent * Levine is most provocative when he contrasts Darwin's articulation of natural selection with accounts that have followed * New Scientist * Recommended * J.S. Schwartz, Choice *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
Three black-and-white halftones
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
470 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-960843-0 (9780199608430)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Now a visiting professor at Gallatin College, New York University, George Levine is Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University, where in almost forty years of teaching Victorian literature and the study of the relations between science and literature, he combined his own passion for nature with his literary scholarship. His Lifebirds is an autobiographical narrative about birding, and his earlier books on Darwin, Darwin and the Novelists and Darwin Loves You, brought together that feeling for the natural with a feeling for literature. He has won many awards, like Guggenheim, NEH, and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships, and has been a fellow at the study centers in Bellagio and Bogliasco, as well as at Girton College, Cambridge and Northwestern University. He was founder of the interdisciplinary study center at Rutgers, The Center for Cultural Analysis.
Content
1. Darwin, the Writer ; 2. Learning to See: Darwin's Prophetic Apprenticeship on the Beagle Voyage ; 3. The Prose of On the Origin of Species ; 4. Surprise and Paradox: Darwin's Artful Legacy ; 5. Darwinian Mind and Wildean Paradox ; 6. Hardy's Woodlanders and the Darwinian Grotesque ; 7. Coda: The Comic Darwin