Charles Darwin and Victorian Visual Culture

A highly illustrated account of Darwin's visual representations of his theories, and their influence on Victorian literature, art and culture, first published in 2006.

Jonathan Smith (Author)

9780521135795, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 May 2009

378 pages, 134 b/w illus.
24.4 x 17.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.6 kg

'Overall, Voss's analysis of Darwin's images is studded throughout with insights.' NTM

Although The Origin of Species contained just a single visual illustration, Charles Darwin's other books, from his monograph on barnacles in the early 1850s to his volume on earthworms in 1881, were copiously illustrated by well-known artists and engravers. In this 2006 book, Jonathan Smith explains how Darwin managed to illustrate the unillustratable - his theories of natural selection - by manipulating and modifying the visual conventions of natural history, using images to support the claims made in his texts. Moreover, Smith looks outward to analyse the relationships between Darwin's illustrations and Victorian visual culture, especially the late-Victorian debates about aesthetics, and shows how Darwin's evolutionary explanation of beauty, based on his observations of colour and the visual in nature, were a direct challenge to the aesthetics of John Ruskin. The many illustrations reproduced here enhance this fascinating study of a little known aspect of Darwin's lasting influence on literature, art and culture.

1. Seeing things: Charles Darwin and Victorian visual culture
2. Darwin's barnacles
3. Darwin's birds
4. Darwin's plants
5. Darwin's faces I
6. Darwin's faces II
7. Darwin's worms
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Impact of science & technology on society [PDR], Philosophy of science [PDA], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]