达尔文

本书为牛津名人传记丛书之一达尔文作为“学识渊博的博物学家”，其兴趣和著作涉及很多学科。这些学科在今天都已成为完整的专业研究领域。史学家经过数十年深入研究，对达尔文科学研究事业的了解远远超过他的家人，现已出版了15卷《查尔斯·达尔文书信集》（还有17卷即将出版）；对达尔文本人的了解亦愈益深刻。我们三人研究达尔文的时间加起来近百年，这成为我们通力合作进行这一重大课题研究的基础。这本小册子就描绘这方面研究提供了综合图景。

阿德里安·德斯蒙德：伦敦大学生物系名誉研究员，著有《进化论政纲》（1989）和两卷本《赫胥黎传》（1994—1997）。

詹姆斯·穆尔：英国函授大学科学史教授。著有《后达尔文主义论战》（1979）、《达尔文传奇》（1994），与阿德里安·德斯蒙德合著《达尔文传》（1991）。

詹妮特。布朗：哈佛大学科学史教授，著作包括两卷本《查尔斯·达尔文传》（1995—2002）和《物种起源传记》（2006）。

前言
作者简介
1、“崭新未来的预兆”
2、“王权的重担”
3、维多利亚与阿尔伯特
4、寻求政治稳定
5、家庭与悲剧
6、结束退隐状态
7、欧洲的祖母
8、“可怜的亲爱的女王”
9、王权重振
资料来源
索引

Upbringing and education　1

Charles Robert Darwin (I8o9-1882),naturalist, geologist, and originator of the theoryof natural selection, was born on 12 February 1809at The Mount, Shrewsbury, the fifth child andsecond son of Robert Waring Darwin 0766-1848),Shrewsbury's principal physician, and SusannahWedgwood 0765--1817). His sisters were Mari-anne, Caroline, Susan, and Emily Catherine, hisbrother Erasmus Alvey. His grandfathers, thepotter Josiah Wedgwood (175o-1795) and theevolutionist poet and physician Erasmus Darwin(1731-1802), were leading lights of the industrialrevolution; his grandmothers were respectivelySarah Wedgwood 0754-1815) and Mary Howard(174o-177o). Charles's mother died in 1817, whenhe was eight, and in later life he had no distinctrecollection of her beyond the 'black velvet gown'she .wore on her deathbed and her 'curiously constructed work-table' (Autobiography, 22). Shewas buried in St Chad's Church, Monlord, near Shrewsbury, where Darwin's father also rests.
Childhood
Darwin's three older sisters took on maternal responsibility and he remembered his childhood with great affection. The nature of tile relation- ship between father and son is disputed. Robert Waring Darwin was a talkative man of strong principles, freethinking, and an enthusiastic gar-dener. In later life Charles frequently referred to cherished medical and scientific opinions of his father, and he appreciated his father's powers.