Darwin’s Books

It is not possible to do proper justice to Renée Bergland’s “Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science” (2024) in just one essay. So, this time I offer a third perspective (see March 24 & 31 issues). There are at least that many to be had from this fine non-fiction book.

“When Darwin was young, ‘scientist’ had not been coined and ‘science’ was defined in many contradictory ways. By the end of his life, he had come to personify the ideal scientist. The definition of ‘science’ had hardened and clarified around Darwin’s naturalists methods. But for Darwin, science itself was as full of change and possibility as it had ever been. It was perfectly fitting that he had become an icon of uncertainty.”

Darwin (1809-82) wrote numerous books in his more than 40 years of scientific publishing, of which four are regarded by Bergland, and 20th//21st-century Darwin successor Edward O. Wilson, as standing above for their telling of his whole “well-wrought narrative.” They are: (1) “The Voyage of the Beagle” (1839); “On the Origin of Species” (1859); “The Descent of Man” (1871); and “The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals” (1872).

These four truly span the scope of geological, biological and life sciences. I can think of no better grouping of books than Bergland’s first for context with Darwin’s four: the narrative that underlies our understanding of life in modern times. Per Bergland, “Beagle” set the stage with Darwin arising from first publication as a very popular public celebrity. It is based on his five-year adventure as a young shipboard naturalist sailing around the world, 1831-36. It is a grand story.

“Origin” “outlined his theoretical argument for natural selection” based on his experience aboard the HMS Beagle and ashore, without articulating a role for the human species. “Descent” did the latter after the reading public had time to absorb the meaning of natural selection. Finally, “The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals” argued “that human hearts and minds were naturally occurring biological features, not markers of separation from other organisms but signs of kinship with other species.”

In all of these books, the origins of Darwin’s thinking came years before their appearances in print. He was a fastidious documenter of his experiments and observations. Aside from following his instinct for scientific thoroughness, he seems to have been also abiding the newness, and even shock, of it all for his public. He allowed time to acclimate, which, as it turns out, has taken more than his own lifetime, much more time than he might have imagined and still counting.

In our own slice of geological time, the public, often from snippets and half-truths spoken by uninformed troublemakers, struggles to come to grips with the full meaning of natural selection even while it benefits greatly from modern professional “ist” subcategories and specialties such as “molecular biologist.” Everything about molecular biology, including its teachings about DNA and RNA structure and function, would bring a smile of satisfaction to the face of Charles Darwin. Reading his narrative in Bergland’s and in his own words should do that for you too. It will be time well spent.