Book description
This concluding volume of Janet Browne's biography covers the
transformation in Darwin's life after the first unexpected
announcement of the theory of evolution by natural selection and the
publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859. Always a
private man, Darwin found himself a controversial figure, reviewed and
discussed in circles that stretched far beyond the boundaries of
Victorian science.
Janet Browne here examines the wider publishing world of Victorian
England and the different audiences that responded to the ideas of one
of the leading thinkers of the nineteenth century and considers the
Darwinian revolution from Darwin's point of view.
Janet Browne is a zoologist and historian of science. She was
formerly a Professor in the History of Biology at the Wellcome Trust
Centre for the History of Medicine at University College, London. She is
currently the Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard
University.
