The Literary and Cultural Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe

Beyond his pivotal place in the history of scientific thought, Charles Darwin's writings and his theory of evolution by natural selection have also had a profound impact on art and culture and continue to do so to this day. The Literary and Cultural Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe is a comprehensive survey of this enduring cultural impact throughout the continent.

With chapters written by leading international scholars that explore how literary writers and popular culture responded to Darwin's thought, the book also includes an extensive timeline of his cultural reception in Europe and bibliographies of major translations in each country.

Thomas F. Glick is Professor of History at Boston University, USA.

Elinor Shaffer, FBA, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, has published on Romantic and Victorian literature, is author of ‘Kubla Khan' and The Fall of Jerusalem: The Mythological School of Biblical Criticism and Secular Literature, edited the annual journal Comparative Criticism, and most recently has contributed to Samuel Butler: Victorian Against the Grain.

Series Editor's Preface \ Contents \ Contributors' List \ Timeline \ Editors' Introduction \ Part I: Literary and Cultural Reception of Darwin in Europe \ 1. Darwin's Reading and Writing (White) \ 2. The Cultural Reception of Darwin in Denmark: the case of Jens-Peter Jacobsen, translator of Origin, poet and novelist (Kjaergaard et al.) \ 3. Darwin in Norwegian Literature (Rem) \ 4. Darwin, Zola and French Naturalism (Baguley) \ 5. Darwin and Proust (Surprenant) \ 6. French Science Fiction, From Jules Verne to J.H. Rosny (Robles) \ 7. Darwin's Literary Reception in German (Ajouri) \ 8. Boelsche, Popular Fiction and Journalistic Reception of Darwin (Saul) \ 9. Darwin and Max Mueller, German Linguist and ‘Anthropologist' (Nicholls) \ 10. Darwin in Dutch Literature (Kemperink) \ 11. Darwin in Spain (Fernández) \ 12. The Curious Translations of Darwinian Sexual Selection in Spain (Landry) \ 13. Darwin's Impact on the ‘Generation of the 1870s' in Portugal (Pereira & Fonseca) \ 14. Darwin and José Maria de Eça de Queiroz (da Silva McNeill) \ 15. The impact of Darwin on Italian literature (Canadelli, Coccia, Pievani) \ 16. The Cultural Reception of Darwin in the Czech Lands (Manek) \ 17. The Cultural Reception of Darwin in Poland and the Ukraine (Schuemann) \ 18. Darwin and Tolstoi, Chekhov and Mandel'stam (Rayfield) \ 19. Darwin's Influence on Russian and Soviet Science Fiction and ‘Light Fiction' of the Early Soviet Period (Maguire) \ Part II: Commemorations of Darwin - The Centenary and Bicentenary of Darwin's Birth and the Publication of Origin of Species \ 20. The Celebrations and Centenaries of Darwin in Germany (Hossfeld) \ 21. Darwinism in Holland: 1859-1909 (van der Heide) \ 22. Darwin Celebrations in Spain (Glick) \ 23. Darwin Celebrations in Italy, 1909 (Canadelli, Coccia, Pievani) \ 24. Norwegian Commemorations (Lie) \ 25. Greek Darwin Celebrations (Malamis) \ 26. Half-Century, Centenary, 150th and Bicentenary Celebrations in Russia (Kolchinsky) \ 27. Early Translations of Darwin into Russian (Konashev) \ 28. Darwin Anniversaries in Sweden (Silverbark) \ 29. The Delayed Reception of Darwin in Finland \ Bibliography \ Index.