Annie's Box: Charles Darwin, his Daughter and Human Evolution [Hardcover]

This book is an unusual biography of Charles Darwin written by his great-great grandson. In 1838, at the age of 29 years, two years after returning from his voyage on the Beagle, Charles decided, after carefuly weighing up the pros and cons, that he should marry. He chose for a wife his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood 11 and granddaughter of the founder of the firm of Wedgwood in Staffordshire who was also Charles's grandfather.
In true Victorian tradition Emma Darwin bore nine children, the third of whom died in infancy, in the first twelve years of marriage. Annie was their second child and first daughter who died when she was ten years old. This book deals mainly with family relationships and concentrates chiefly on the ten years that span Annie's lifetime.
The box in question which was found by Randal Keynes when sorting through family documents was, in fact, a writing case containing all the materials necessary for a Victorian young lady to carry on her correspondence and to which other memorabilia, including an appreciation of his daughter by Charles, was added for preservation as a memorial after Annie's death.
Charles and Emma were devoted and indulgent parents. Theirs were not the 'seen but not heard' children typical of the age. They were allowed full freedom of expression and encouraged to learn by enquiry.
One point of disagreement between Charles and his wife was on the subject of religion. Emma was sincerely religious. She attended church regularly and took the Sacrament. She read the bible with her children and taught them the Unitarian creed although they were baptised and confirmed in the Church of England. Charles on the other hand was becoming increasingly didenchanted with Christianity and finally, at the age of forty, he abandoned his Christian faith as had his father before him. He did not, however, deny the existence of a God and at the end of his life described himself as an agnostic.
In 1851 Annie contracted a debilitating illness which, with hindsight, was almost certainly tuberculosis although this diagnosis was not made at the time. She was sent,in the care of her governess and nanny, to Malvern to undergo the water treatment under the supervision of one Dr Gully. Soon thereafter she became critically ill. Charles was summoned and together with Emma's sister-in-law Fanny Wedgwood hehped to nurse Annie through the final stages of her illness.
It is perhaps understandable that Emma, in the late stages of pregnancy, did not travel to Malvern to attend her daughter's deathbed. It does seem surprising however that Charles returned home immediately after Annie's death leaving Emma's sister-in-law and brother Fanny and Hensliegh Wedgwod to arrange and attend the funeral in Malvern and the landlady to register the death.
Throughout his married life Charles suffered chronic ill health. He continued his observations on plant and animal life and on his own children as he developed his theory of evolution, corresponded with leading scientists and published his master works The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man and many others.
This book, based on Darwin family papers, gives a unique insight into the private life of an eminent Victorian freethinker.

"Annie's Box" reveales in simple yet stunningly beautiful detail the other side of this famous English scientist. Keynes shows us the side of Darwin so often overlooked - the family man. Written in such a way that one almost feels Mr. Keynes literally wrote this book standing looking in through a window at Darwin. The descriptions remain strong and memorable - and Annie's story is heartbreaking and human - an all too frequent reminder of the tragedy of Victorian times.

Well worth a place on anyone's book shelf!

This book gives a fascinating background to what is possibly the most important book ever written -namely Darwin's "Origin of Species". The world was never the same again after "Species" and Darwin knew that would be the case. This was the reason he delayed publication for 20 years- fearing amongst other things that his deeply religious wife would never forgive him.

If you have not seen the film "Creation" you should. As the film of this book, it is also excellent.