Emma Darwin’s diaries published

March 12th, 2007

The personal diaries of the wife of Charles Darwin have been made available online. The BBC reports:

Emma Darwin’s notebooks cover six decades of the couple’s life together and provide an insight into the daily life of the Victorian scientist.
The first diary is dated 1824 when the then named Emma Wedgwood was just 16 years old.
The diaries reveal how the Darwins entertained visiting scientists - with guests sometimes numbering 10 or 15.

Personally I’m in two minds as to this development. On the one hand, I can see the value of these diaries in shedding light on Darwin the man, and no doubt they’ll be of interest to historians and biographers the world round. On the other hand, Darwin’s greatness lay not in his personality but in his science. In that respect, I’ve no interest in his personal life, what he ate for breakfast and how many friends he had round to dinner. There’s something quite voyeuristic about analysing Darwin’s private life when it’s not undertaken to illustrate and understand his science better.

Entry Filed under: General

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