The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H.G. Wells: Science, Evolution, and Ecology

233 Pages·2012·1.714 MB·English

by  Michael R. Page

The LiTerary imaginaTion from
erasmus Darwin To h. g. weLLs
This page has been left blank intentionally
The Literary imagination from
erasmus Darwin to h. g. wells
science, evolution, and ecology
michaeL r. Page
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
© michael r. Page 2012
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
michael r. Page has asserted his right under the copyright, Designs and Patents act, 1988,
to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing Limited ashgate Publishing company
wey court east suite 420
union road 101 cherry street
farnham Burlington
surrey, gu9 7PT VT 05401-4405
england usa
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Page, michael r., 1967–
The literary imagination from erasmus Darwin to h.g. wells: science, evolution, and
ecology.
1. Literature and science – great Britain – history – 19th century. 2. science in literature.
3. evolution (Biology) in literature. 4. english literature – 19th century – history and
criticism. 5. romanticism – great Britain.
i. Title
820.9’36’09034-dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Page, michael r., 1967–
The literary imagination from erasmus Darwin to h.g. wells: science, evolution, and
ecology / by michael r. Page.
p. cm.
includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-3869-4 (hardcover: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4094-3870-0 (ebook)
1. English literature—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Literature and science—
Great Britain—History—19th century. 3. Science in literature. 4. Darwin, Charles, 1809–
1882—Influence. I. Title.
Pr468.s34P34 2012
820.9’3609034—dc23
2011040945
ISBN: 9781409438694 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781409438700 (ebk)
V
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: “The Banner of Science”: Science and the Nineteenth-Century
British Literary Imagination 1
1 “Beautiful and Sublime Images of the Operations of Nature”:
Erasmus Darwin 17
2 “Mirrors of the Gigantic Shadows of Futurity”: Wordsworth and
Shelley 39
3 “A New Species”: Mary Shelley’s Science Fiction Novels 71
4 “A Tangled Bank”: Darwinian Science Fictions 111
5 “Dim Outlines on a Desolate Beach”: H.G. Wells 149
Conclusion: “Where Do We Go from Here?” 193
Works Cited 203
Index 219
This page has been left blank intentionally
Acknowledgements
Many of the ideas that have found their way into this book have their origin 30
years ago, when, at the age of 14, I discovered that the H.G. Wells and Jules Verne
novels I’d been reading for a few years by then were the foundations of a vast and
venerable literary genre. That discovery came when my brother, Kevin, presented
me with a copy of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume IIA, edited by Ben
Bova, for Christmas. After that I was hooked. I had the pleasure of sharing an
elevator with Mr. Bova at the Science Fiction Research Association Conference
in Kansas City a few years ago, so I’d like to thank him and all of the greats of
science fiction for their inspiration.
A similar discovery occurred some years later when I finally figured out that
Frankenstein was not only great science fiction, but also a central work within
the canon of British Romanticism. The first inklings of this realization occurred
when I was a senior in college in a class called “Literature and the Other Arts”
at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The professor was Stephen C. Behrendt.
Ten years later, when I returned to school in search of an advanced degree,
Steve’s 19th Century British Literature course was my gateway into graduate
school. So, Steve has been with this project from the beginning, showing me in
that first undergraduate class that literature was exciting and mattered, guiding
me through my M.A. thesis and PhD. dissertation, and continuing to be a valued
reader and friend.
Other advisors, colleagues, and friends at the University of Nebraska have also
made perceptive comments and suggestions, most especially Robert Stock and
Laura M. White. Bob’s always-open office door and enthusiasm for the fantastic
have provided me with many hours of insightful and lively discussion. Jack Vespa,
the late Joy Currie, Guy Reynolds, and the participants in Jack’s eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century literary circle also made helpful comments along the way. I’d
also like to thank the department chairs who served while this project was in the
works: Linda Pratt, Joy Ritchie, and Susan Belasco. My friends at the University
of Kansas, James E. Gunn, Chris McKitterick, Nate Williams, and Lydia Ash,
have greatly contributed to my thinking on science fiction and its relationship
to nineteenth-century literature. Jim’s summer seminars on science fiction were
another revelatory discovery. I wish I’d discovered them 20 years earlier!
Thanks also go out to the libraries at UNL, KU, and the Lincoln City Libraries.
We need libraries and open stacks. More than one book referenced herein was
serendipitously discovered while browsing the stacks looking for something else.
I’d also like to thank Ann Donohue at Ashgate for her enthusiasm for this
project and the anonymous reader who gave me such an encouraging report.
viii The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H. G. Wells
My thanks to the editors of PLL: Papers on Language and Literature for
publishing a previous and shorter version of the chapter on Erasmus Darwin in the
Spring 2005 issue.
One cannot complete a project like this without the support of family. My father,
Monte, read the manuscript and listened to my ideas. My wife, Susan, offered
unfailing encouragement through the ups and downs of the writing process and
has offered welcome alternative perspectives when needed. Much of the writing
was done while our now deceased Labrador retriever, Dali, lay nearby, and that
“job” has now passed to our new Lab, Mary; the joy and comfort their presence
has been to my writing life is immeasurable. Finally, I wish to thank my mother,
Joyce (whom I forgot to thank in my previous book, as she reminds me), for her
unequivocal love and commitment. Here’s to you mom!
Introduction
“The Banner of Science”:
Science and the Nineteenth-Century
British Literary Imagination
The publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species in 1859 is a watershed
moment in modern intellectual history. Indeed, it is perhaps the watershed moment
in the narrative of modern science. As the story goes, the publication of the Origin,
followed 12 years later by the even more controversial The Descent of Man, sent
shockwaves throughout nineteenth-century Western culture, dismantling the
outmoded religious view of human origins and presenting a new picture of how
life on earth formed and developed over time. The aftershocks continue to rumble
in our own time. In literary and popular culture, and also in the narrative science
presents to itself, Darwin has become a figure of heroic proportions: on the one hand
canonized as a prophet of scientific triumph and on the other vilified as the Devil in
disguise, diverting humankind from God’s truth. In popular histories of science the
publication of Darwin’s theory is often presented as a triumphal moment, a world-
changing revelation, when the “truth” of science finally shattered the illusions of
a predominantly religious worldview. Finally, there was an explanation for life’s
origins consistent with the facts of the natural world. In this secular theodicy of
Western science, Darwin stands higher than all others. John Gribbin’s assessment
of Darwin’s theory in The Scientists is typical:
There were many dramatic developments in science in the nineteenth century,
but undoubtedly the most important of these in terms of understanding the place
of humankind in the Universe (and arguably the most important idea in the
whole of science) was the theory of natural selection, which, for the first time,
offered a scientific explanation of the fact of evolution. The name of Charles
Darwin is forever linked with the idea of natural selection, and rightly so (319).
In the narrative of modern science Darwin is fashioned as both hero and
prophet. In a recent history of evolutionary theory, Edward J. Larson writes, “By
the 1870s, Darwin was an international celebrity. Even if people did not believe
they descended from apes, they talked about it—and about Darwin. And for
many of those who did believe, Darwin became a kind of secular prophet or high
priest” (105). This prophet metaphor is common throughout such contemporary
narratives. For instance, in Making Modern Science, Peter J. Bowler and Iwan
Rhys Morus declare Darwin “converted the world to evolutionism, and he was also
the discoverer of what most modern biologists take to be the correct explanation of
how evolution works, natural selection” (131). Notice here how Darwin’s theory