Darwin's Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century FictionGillian Beer's classic Darwin's Plots, one of the most influential works of literary criticism and cultural history of the last quarter century, is here reissued in an updated edition to coincide with the anniversary of Darwin's birth and of the publication of The Origin of Species. Its focus on how writers, including George Eliot, Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hardy, responded to Darwin's discoveries and to his innovations in scientific language continues to open up new approaches to Darwin's thought and to its effects in the culture of his contemporaries. This third edition includes an important new essay that investigates Darwin's concern with consciousness across all forms of organic life. It demonstrates how this fascination persisted throughout his career and affected his methods and discoveries. With an updated bibliography reflecting recent work in the field, this book will retain its place at the heart of Victorian studies. |
Contents
Preface to the third edition | |
anthropomorphism and thenatural | |
Darwins plots 3 Analogy metaphor andnarrative inTheOrigin | |
Middlemarch I Thevitalinfluence II Structureand hypothesis | |
Daniel Deronda and theidea | |
womeninnarrative | |
Notes | |
Other editions - View all
Darwin's Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and ... Gillian Beer No preview available - 2009 |
Darwin's Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and ... Gillian Beer No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
affinities analogy andthe animals anthropomorphism argument asthe atthe becomes bythe Cambridge Charles Darwin Claude Bernard concept congruity consciousness creative culture Daniel Deronda Darwinian descent discourse diverse edition emotion emphasis essay Evolution evolutionary theory experience expressed fiction fromthe future genetic Geology George Eliot Gjertrud Schnackenberg Grandcourt growth Gwendolen Hardy Hardy';s human idea imaginative implications individual inhabitants inheritance inhis insistence inthe inwhich isthe Itis Jo Shapcott Kingsley language literary London Lyell man's means metaphor Middlemarch mind Mirah myth narrative natural selection Natural Theology Nineteenth Century notebooks novel novelists observation ofhis ofman ofnatural ofthe onthe organic organisation Origin of Species particular passage physical plot possible preoccupation present problems profusion race reader relations Science scientific scientists sense sequence sexual sexual selection social story structure struggle suggests survival teleology thatof things thought tobe tothe transformation Victorian withthe writing