Darwin and Women
A Selection of Letters

A selection of correspondence, much previously unpublished, between Darwin and women in his circle, both family members and colleagues.

Charles Darwin (Author), Samantha Evans (Edited by)

9781107158863, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 January 2017

298 pages, 19 b/w illus.
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.55 kg

'Darwin and Women contains a wealth of fascinating stories about the lives of nineteenth century women and the slow growth in professionalisation of their work. … The book is as entertaining as it is enlightening, and allows us to hear many of the voices of women that would otherwise be lost to history.' Ann Kennedy Smith, Dublin Review of Books

Darwin and Women focusses on Darwin's correspondence with women and on the lives of the women he knew and wrote to. It includes a large number of hitherto unpublished letters between members of Darwin's family and their friends that throw light on the lives of the women of his circle and their relationships, social and professional, with Darwin. The letters included are by turns entertaining, intriguing, and challenging, and are organised into thematic chapters, including botany and zoology as well as marriage and servants, that set them in an accessible narrative context. Darwin's famous remarks on women's intelligence in Descent of Man provide a recurring motif, and are discussed in the foreword by Gillian Beer, and in the introduction. The immediacy and variety of these texts make this an entertaining read which will suggest avenues for further research to students.

1. Friends
2. Marriage
3. Children Charissa Varma
4. Scientific wives and allies
5. Observing plants
6. Companion animals
7. Insects and angels
8. Observing humans
9. Editors
10. Writers and critics
11. Religion Paul White
12. Travellers
13. Servants and governesses
14. Ascent of woman.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ], Biology, life sciences [PS], History of science [PDX]