Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction

Submitted by Gerti

As you might expect from an author whose name means “holy man” in German, Deborah Heiligman has written an account of what religion meant in the life of a very famous man - Charles Darwin. For those who don’t know, he was the British naturalist who came up with the “survival of the fittest” concept of evolution, and hence butted heads with those who were more comfortable with the creation story in the Bible, where God created everything that ever lived. This book spends most of its time dealing with that dilemma in Darwin’s life.

But the method this book uses to examine the gulf between Darwin’s theories and commonly held religious beliefs in the 1800s is to examine the relationship between Darwin and his wife Emma, who was far more religious than her husband. Heiligman’s book details the Darwin’s many children and their happy family life. And it shows how the death of the couple’s favorite child, Annie, challenged Emma’s belief in heaven and killed Charles’ entirely. More important in regards to his scientific contributions, it details what influenced Darwin to make his great leap of thought – including his voyage on the HMS Beagle and the Thomas Robert Malthus’ essay on human population growth and decline that Darwin thought might explain the growth and decline of plant and animal species as well. The book even shows the influence Darwin had on popular culture – from the cartoons that lampoon the relationship between monkeys and humans, to the novel “Wives and Daughters” by Elizabeth Gaskell where the hero was modeled after Darwin.

I found the book interesting, as it humanizes the iconic figure, showing how worried Darwin was about releasing “The Origin of Species” before it was perfect, and how he dealt with public and private opposition to his theory, as well as to closely-related rival theories. The text delves into his many fascinations – with bugs, birds, for example, and explains what might seem a mystery for modern people - why he was able to spend so much time being a naturalist (his family was related to the rich and famous Wedgwoods.) It also lists Darwin’s many illnesses, and shows how hard he had to work to overcome his frequent bouts with headaches and intestinal distress in order to research and write his many books (and journals).

So the book taught me more about Darwin the man than a simple biography would have. But my criticism is that, at times, the author’s need to link religion to a particular moment in Darwin’s life felt forced, although I understand that she wanted to make this more than an “ordinary” biography. Yet, even with that issue, the book is worth reading if you have any interest in the life of this ordinary man with an extraordinary mind.