Women's History

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith

Deborah Heiligman
New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2009
268 pp.
$18.95 Historical Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780805087215

Marry or Not Marry? That is the question 29 year-old Charles Darwin finds himself contemplating in the summer of 1838. By the fall of that year he had found the woman who answered that question for him, his cousin, Emma Wedgwood.

This is the love story of Charles and Emma Darwin. A love story built upon mutual respect, compromise, and admiration, which lasted 43 years while he was alive and a love she undoubtedly took to her grave 14 years after him as she “never went anywhere without her “precious packet”-the few letters she had saved that he had written to her over the years.”

As Charles became serious in his quest to find a bride in Victorian England he had many obstacles to overcome. One major hurdle was his “strong and growing” doubts about God and Christianity. He knew that “most women were believers and wanted their husbands to be believers to.” When he went to his father for advice he was told quite simply to “conceal your doubts.”

Emma “had been brought up with few, if any, rules and the encouragement to think freely.” In her home there was “no difference in politics or principles of any kind that makes it treason to speak one’s mind openly.” This bode well for Charles as he needed someone who could and would think independently. And while Emma enjoyed his company she “was not mooning over Charles or plotting for a marriage.” Soon Charles realized “it would take a special man to pry Emma away from home.”

Charles was in love and “couldn’t stop thinking about Emma.” He was nervous and anxious because “he knew what he had to say would be shocking to Emma and others who believed that God was the creator of all species.” The one thing her knew for sure was that “he could not lie.” Finally after much deliberation and feeling “sick” Charles proposed to Emma. And although “shocked”, she said “yes.” Thankfully he discounted his father’s advice. He did not conceal his doubts from Emma and she accepted them.

So begins a happy marriage built on compromise. “She was disorganized, and a slob.” Charles was not. And while “extremely well-read…she wasn’t after intellectual pursuits.” Charles was. She had “a faith in God and eternity…she believed in a heaven and a hell.” Charles did not. Nonetheless, they raised 8 children (they had 10, a daughter died in infancy and another daughter, Annie, died at the age of 10). She supported her husband and his scientific discoveries. She even edited his species draft as he knew she was “the one person he had the most faith in, the person he could trust above all.”

The human condition is wrought and overwrought with love. Charles and Emma Darwin personify this to the highest degree. They both struggle to jump over the “ugly great ditch” that Lessing himself repeatedly tried to no avail. But Charles and Emma do make that triumphant leap out of faith and into love. Through diaries, journals, personal letters, and first person accounts from family and friends the author accurately portrays a complete picture of Charles and Emma Darwin. The book offers a glimpse into Victorian England and its religious values, family structure, role of women, and the toll of death and disease. The author thankfully provides a family tree, as many family members share names and marriage between cousins was an accepted practice. I came away with a fuller understanding of Charles as a faithful husband and devoted father in addition to one of the most controversial figures in human history. More importantly, I came away with complete reverence for Emma Darwin. To think that with the loving support and undying devotion of this one woman, this one man would find the courage to offer a theory that would affect human history is awe inspiring.

This book would be enjoyed by both boys and girls ages 12 and up. Themes: Victorian England, religion, science, marriage, death, and family. Other stories students may enjoy include:

Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women by Catherine Timmesh and Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium by Carla Killough McClafferty.