Product Description

A biography of scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace. In 1858 Wallace wrote to Charles Darwin and told him he had worked out a theory of natural selection. Darwin's outline and Wallace's paper were presented jointly in London. A year later Darwin published "The Origin of the Species", yet Wallace felt no bitterness and in fact Wallace and Darwin became friends. Wallace had none of the advantages of Darwin. He was born in Usk, Gwent in 1823, he left school at 14 and in his mid-20s he spent four years in the Amazon collecting for musuems, only to lose it all in a shipboard fire. He later went to the East Indies where he began an eight year trek and discovered countless unknown species and identified the point of divide between Asian and Australian fauna, now known as "Wallace's Line". This biography reveals Wallace as a courageous, unconventional explorer who loved the wild and the independent spirit of the people he met. When he returned to England he retreated into country life and stayed vital and alert until his death at the age of 90, in 1913. This biography hopes to put Alfred Russel Wallace back into the centre stage of the science world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #310937 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Sunday Telegraph
‘A welcome reassessment of one of the great forgotten mavericks of British science’

About the Author
Peter Raby is Research Reader in English and Drama at Homerton College, Cambridge. His previous books include Fair Ophelia; a Life of Harriet Smithson Berlioz and the widely praised biography, Samuel Butler, as well as Bright Paradise: Victorian Scientific Travellers, and a recent study, Aubrey Beardsley and the 1890s. He also writes for the theatre and is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. He lives near Cambridge, on the edge of the Fens.

Customer Reviews

An informative overview
Victorian Britain was a time of exploration, industrial advance, social and political experiments and scientific speculation. Although many key figures appeared, few covered so many elements of this dynamic as did Alfred Russell Wallace. From almost desparately poor beginnings, Wallace became a dedicated explorer and specimen collector. Raby's sympathetic portrayal of this complex character is a good introduction. Wallace travelled and collected far more widely than did his contemporary Charles Darwin. That both developed the same concept, evolution of species by natural selection, was the result of keen powers of observation. Wallace's wide-spread interests took his attention into areas Darwin either ignored or avoided. Unlike the retiring Darwin, Wallace was at the forefront of many issues, speaking and writing on many issues. Some of these, as Raby carefully recounts, led him into difficulties, both financial and intellectual.

Raby traces the development of a man who almost beggars analysis. Wallace's life was dogged by near penury due to family commitments and lack of regular employment. His decision to explore the upper Amazon basin was almost an act of desparation, but it led to a lifelong interest in nature and "primitive" people. Overcoming the loss of four years of exploration and study, he recovered deftly with a long-term examination of the East Indies archipelago. Early flirtations with socialist ideals gave him a more sympathetic view of indigenous people than the average Victorian Briton. He adopted a strong sense of independence from authoritarian measures, leading him to oppose land enclosures and vaccination, which he saw as doing more harm than good. The great issue in his later years was spiritualism. This last proved a stumbling block to his scientific ambitions. Although many authors disparage this interest as demeaning, in Raby's view it is simply another aspect of Wallace's probing intellect.

The primary concern with Wallace remains his co-authorship of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's insight occupied his thinking for two decades while he considered evidence. Wallace had been considering the issue for several years, finally synthesising his ideas during confinement from a malarial attack. Wallace never disputed Darwin's priority nor his superiority as a scientific genius, although recent historians have taken up his "cause" in an attempt to erode Darwin's reputation. Raby examines these claims in some detail, either refuting them or questioning the validity of the evidence. Wallace diverged from Darwin's version of natural selection in some details, most notably over human evolution. In line with his spiritualism, Wallace insisted the human mind could not be an adaptation and must be the result of influence by a "higher power". He wasn't alone in that view either then or now.

Raby's examination of the life of another "tormented evolutionist" is an engaging read and fluent introduction to this charismatic figure. With his long life encompassing an era of many new ideas, Wallace doesn't stand out in the history of science nearly as much as is his due. This book goes far in restoring his image. Raby's prose style is clear and expressive without descending into unnecessary adulation of his subject. The greatest lack is in his failure to place Wallace more fully in the context of his times. Since that would cover the whole of the Victorian era and beyond, we may forgive this curtailment. There are, after all, numerous works providing that overview. A valuable summary for the reader interested in exploration, natural science and Victorian personalities.