Randal Keynes - Creation

Table of Contents

An engrossing book, a biography with a difference... Keynes gives an excellent overview of Victorian writings on medicine, religion, and science as they bore on the question of disease and death, especially the deaths of children, which raised with particular sharpness the question of Gods intention and benevolence.... Above all, Keynes sets Darwins lonely progress in his researches on species directly in the context of family love and loss. The Sunday Telegraph (London)

In this intimate portrait... the great-great-grandson of the scientist, Keynes uses published documents as well as family papers and artifacts to show how Darwins thinking on evolution was influenced by his deep attachment to his wife and children. In particular, his anguish over his ten-year-old daughter Annies death sharpened his conviction that the operation of natural laws had nothing to do with divine intervention or morality. Keynes shows that much of Darwins intellectual struggle in writing On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man arose from his efforts to understand the role of suffering and death in the natural order of the world.... A moving tribute to a thinker who, despite intimate acquaintance with the pain inflicted by the war of nature could still marvel that, from this ruthless struggle, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. Publishers Weekly

Though there have been innumerable biographies of Darwin, there cannot have been any warmer portrayals of his humanity and his desire to discover meaning in human existence. The Irish Times

Above all this is a love story: the love of Charles and Emma... and the love of both for their children. The Times (London)

Fascinating... This is a wonderful portrait of a Victorian family in all its aspects... so extraordinary and so revealing. Birmingham Post (UK)

It is a rare biography that reveals the key emotional moment in its subjects personal and intellectual life so clearly as Randal Keynes does for Charles Darwin....What makes this book so moving and illuminating is the way Keynes tracks his subjects emotional development and, more generally, shows how much his scientific thinking was influenced by his wife, Emma, and their ten children.... Besides its contribution to the intellectual history of Darwinism, [it] is a delightful portrayal of mid-nineteenth-century family life.

Financial Times

The evolution of Darwins theories played out against the evolution of his family lifein a graceful and insightful biography by the naturalists great-great-grandson.... [The book] will do much to burnish Darwins reputation as a husband and father; his scientific bona fides continue to stand tall. Kirkus Reviews

One of the most remarkable moving biographies of recent years.

The Scotsman

Sensitively told, this is a deeply human story in which Darwin, the caring father and husband, emerges with as much esteem as Darwin the great scientist. The Northern Echo

Rigorously, tenderly, Randal Keynes recounts the most emotional moments in Darwins career. He opens up the sacred interiors of Darwins marriage and family life to show how he drew on his heart-rending experiences to shed light on the evolution of human nature.

James Moore, coauthor of Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist

[ Creation ] is... committed to humanizing a man whose personal life has inevitably become locked out of history. Keynes has reclaimed the piece of the past he aimed for. His bright and devoted biography makes the iconic, elevated figure of his great-great-grandfather seem entirely human [and] reminds us how difficult it is for any modern reader to even crudely imagine how much of a threat Darwins views posed to the dominant beliefs of the day. Keynes absorbs himself into the period totally, and, in his dogged reconstruction of the Darwin family tree, creates an epic sense of lineage. His meticulous arrangement of notebook extracts supply [the book] with both its structure and its intimacy. The extensive quotations from personal journals and lettersparticularly the correspondence between Darwin and his wife in the build-up to Annies deathfor a surprising emotional weight at the books heart.

Scotland on Sunday

Unique... a fascinating, detailed picture. Sunday Mail

Randal Keynes is a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin and a great-nephew of economist John Maynard Keynes. He lives and works in London. This is his first book.

Annie Darwin in 1849

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First published in England by Fourth Estate Limited as Annies Box: Charles Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution.

First Riverhead trade paperback movie tie-in edition: December 2009

eISBN : 978-1-101-15952-1

Keynes, Randal.
Darwin, his daughter & human evolution / Randal Keynes.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-15952-1

1. Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882. 2. Drawin, Charles, 1809-1882Family. 3. Darwin
f amily. 4. NaturalistsEnglandBiography. 5. Evolution (Biology).
QH31.D2 K
576.8093dc21
[B}

For M.E.K.
1890-1974

Much love, much trial
CHARLES DARWIN TO JOSEPH HOOKER,
27 NOVEMBER 1863

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Bernard (1876-1961)Franciss son, Charles and Emmas grandson. Brought up by Emma and Charles after his mother, Amy, died of puerperal fever. Essayist and journalist for The Times.

Caroline (1800-88)Charless elder sister. Brought up Charles after their mother died when he was eight. Married their cousin Josiah Wedgwood III in 1837. During Annies childhood and afterwards, lived with her husband and their children at Leith Hill Place in Surrey.