Charles Darwin

Francis O'Gorman (University of Edinburgh)
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No one reads Darwin for the first time. His ideas are so deeply embedded in western culture that many are familiar with their important terms without having read the original texts. The idea of evolution, and the principles of natural selection, were not Darwin's alone. But his version of them, expressed with clarity and in accessible language in

The Origin of Species

(1859), shapes contemporary assumptions about the natural world and human development. Darwinian conceptions do so to such an extent that it requires strenuous imaginative sympathy to think of a time without them.

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury on 12 February 1809. He was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), a physician of Lichfield, who wrote The Botanic Garden (1791) in heroic couplets. This poem famously

2312 words

Citation: O'Gorman, Francis. "Charles Darwin". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 November 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5195, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5195 Charles Darwin 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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