| THE ORIGIN A Biographical Novel of Charles Darwin Irving Stone Jean Stone (ed.) Allan Nevins (Fwd.) New York: Signet, September 1982 (© 1980 Irving Stone) |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-451-11761-8 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-451-11761-1 | 774pp. | SC | $4.50 | |
| Page 1: | "He stood before the mahogany shaving stand, stirred his brush in the white shaving bowl with blue flowers which sat on a circular shelf, added hot water from a copper jug, lathered his light-complected face and then opened his finely honed steel razor with its ebony handle." |
| Hot water from a copper jug? Is this not an invitation to burn the hands, if the water is truly hot? Of course, truly hot water would probably have cooled down before it reached young Darwin's hands, due to the great radiating properties of copper. I would have expected such a jug to be made of porcelain, especially since that is the Wedgewood business and hallmark. |
| Page 46: | "He passed the cutoff road to Market Drayton. There were many small pleasure boats on its canal-like river, after which he rode into Staffordshire." |
| I think this is clumsy writing. Darwin obviously did not follow the boats as they made their slow passage to Staffordshire. They did not go there at all. But the phrase can be taken this way. |
| Page 63: | "As they rose from the battered cane chairs under a giant dogwood, Harriet brought out a caller, a Mr. Wood, nephew of Lord Londonderry. Charles had met him at Henslow's Friday evenings. He had never heard Wood's first name, nor did he know what Wood did, or why he bothered coming to the soirees he called 'Friday-night science,' since all he talked about was politics, slavery, suffrage and why the Reform Bill was misguided idealism which would never work in a practical world." |
| Oddly, I twigged right away to the fact that the appearance of Wood, a very political chap, spells trouble. To this point, everyone Darwin meets is friendly and supportive. I knew immediately that Wood would stir up trouble for Darwin with FitzRoy. |
| Pages 89-90: | "He knew by all the signs that Fanny [Owen] was fond of him. When he had failed to visit Woodhouse during the Christmas season of 1829, she had been hurt... There were other, more important signs. Each year when the strawberries came ripe he would go to Woodhouse for a week. He and Fanny would lie full length upon the strawberry beds, grazing by the hour, exchanging kisses with their mouths stained red." |
| Yes, I'd say that second indicator is the more important. |
| Page 128: | "The officers were handsome in their blue coats with scarlet stand-up collars, wide cuffs and rows of highly embossed gold buttons, ten in each downward march." |
| I misunderstand this. Are there degrees to which buttons can be embossed? I was under the impression that they were either embossed or not. |
| Page 129: | "Sulivan slept straight through the night, missing the ball and his engagement with Miss Young. 'Now I won't be able to give her our post stops.'" |
| Typo: S/B "port". |
| Page 153: | "A circle of bright-eyed black children surrounded them, chattering, drawing from Charles's copious pockets silver pencil, gun, compass, and mountain barometer, all of which brought shouts of astonishment and laughter." |
| Especially that gun, I'll bet. Was Charles laughing with the rest? |
| Page 154: | "Look at this lava. Like spun glass. There is something in the comparative nearness of time which is very satisfactory when viewing volcanic rocks." |
| Here's another phrase I fail to understand. |
| Page 159: | "They found a somewhat quiet cove and affected a landing through the surf..." |
| Vocabulary: S/B "effected a landing". |
| Page 183: | A letter from Charles to his family: "Although I like this knocking about, I find I steadily have a distant prospect of a very quite parsonage, and I can see it even through a grove of palms." |
| Spelling: S/B "a very quiet parsonage". |
| Page 184: | "The earth and air proliferated with insects: fresh-water scavenging beetles, fireflies, cicadae, a type of locust; vampire bats; shining elaters; leaf-cutting ants, swallowtail butterflies; rapacious hymenoptera, wasps, walking sticks, praying mantises, cockroaches, palm weevil, snout beetles... many of which he had never heard of." |
| Classification: vampire bats are not insects. Shining elaters: who knows? Also, "of which he had never heard of" is redundant. |
| Page 188: | "Once back in Cambridge, Henslow would mount them..." |
| Dangling participle: S/B "Once the specimens were back in Cambridge". |
| Page 198: | "Captain FitzRoy dictated a contract to Hellyer, his clerk: the owners were committed to provide their services and boats for either lunar months." |
| Spelling: S/B "for eight lunar months". |
| Page 200: | "The conglomerate gave easily. Soon Charles had in his hands the bones of gigantic, ancient mammifers." |
| "Mammifers" is an unknown term. |
| Page 203: | "By evening the wind eased off enough for Captain FitzRoy to get within a hundred yards in his whaleboats and throw over a cask of provisions. 'I need two strong swimmers to volunteer to get that casket, said Stokes." |
| Word choice: S/B "that cask". |
| Page 242: | "Two leagues later the gauchos decided to stop for the night." |
| Distances had been measured in miles; now all of a sudden it's leagues. |
| Page 247: | 'What am I eating?' "The officer in charge replied, 'One of the favorite dishes of our country...' Charles put down his joint of meat. He knew that one of the favorite dishes was unborn calf. 'Calf of a cow?', he asked. 'No. Puma. Good white meat.' His stomach turned." |
| Charles, accustomed to eating armadillo and ostrich, suddenly turns squeamish at puma? |
| Page 267: | "...he was certain Matthews would be in danger from the foot Patagonians who came over to steal..." |
| Unclear description: "foot Patagonians"? Probably S/B "the first Patagonians". |
| Page 275: | "Shaking the great entangled roots, a pile of small fish, shells, cuttlefish, crabs, sea eggs, starfish, planaria, fell out." |
| Dangling participle: s/B "When he shook the great entangled roots". |
| Page 281: | "The more delicate things as insects, skins etc., I keep at my own house with the precaution of putting Camphor into the bones." |
| Typo: S/B "the boxes". |
| Page 285: | "Chile was a long narrow pencil of land held in a vise between the rugged Andes and the equally Pacific." |
| Missing word: S/B "equally rugged Pacific". |
| Page 299: | "Charles and Syms took long walks in the woods collecting that lived, animal, vegetable and mineral." |
| Somehow this needs to be rewritten. |
| Page 308: | "But mostly he fell in love with the young ladies, whose elastic gowns fitted their figures so closely that they were obliged to walk with elegant small steps, revealing white silk stockings and very pretty feet." |
| Lustful in Lima: This is as close as Stone gets to erotic in this book. And I daresay young Charles would not have confined himself to visual enjoyment, during those five years away from Fanny Owen. |
| Page 320: | "Commander Mason of Valparaiso had instruced him to collect for the plundering of the British ship H.M.S. Truro in 1831..." |
| Spelling: S/B "instructed". |
| Page 320: | "FitzRoy lolled back in his chair, stretched his arms upward in a lazy body yawm, and said:" |
| Spelling: S/B "yawn". |
| Page 324: | "The next day was market day in Waimete. The natives came in with their stock of potatoes, Indian corn and pigs which they traded for blankets, tobacco, and an occasional bar of soap." |
| Compare the statements at the top of this page: "They never think of washing. From birth to death. Nor do they clean anything they use. It's simply not in their culture." The book says that came from a Mr. Baker, a Christian missionary to New Zealand's Maori natives. |
| Page 327: | "...he detoured to Walerawang Farm, which ran fifteen thousand sheep..." |
| I understood these were called "sheep stations," not farms. |
| Page 332: | "The only adventure Charles could scrounge up was a walk with FitzRoy to Bald Head where they camp upon a stand of petrified trees erect in the position in which they grew." |
| Spelling: S/B "came". |
| Page 340: | "Nothing grew on the lava coast, but inland, near the summit of the central islands. Green Hill, Charles found houses, gardens and fields." |
| Punctuation: S/B "central islands, Green Hill". |
| Page 347: | "He himself was knocked up, having been riding in the coaches for forty-six hours." |
| How colloquialisms change! |
| Page 348: | "Mark, his father's coachman, held by the hand of his wife, the Darwin laundress whom he had married when Charles was away." |
| Extra word: S/B "held the hand". |
| Page 354: | "And your eyes, merciful heaven, when I looked into them last I saw Fanny Owen or the lastest partridge you had shot." |
| Spelling: S/B "last" or "latest". |
| Page 355: | "When I go back to England," he told Erasmus, "I thought I had finished my job." |
| Spelling: S/B "got back". |
| Page 379: | "William's nice, Victoria, daughter of the Duke of Kent, was the heir apparent." |
| Spelling: S/B "niece". |
| Page 470: | "...added small coffee tables and chairs to their possessions from Upper Glower Street..." |
| Spelling: S/B "Upper Gower Street". |
| Page 536: | "From there I received a three-year scholarship at Charing Cross Hospital, then spent time at London University where I received my M.B. That's how I got my job as assistant surgeon..." |
| Spelling: S/B "M.D.". |
| Page 557: | "It has now been show, though most briefly and imperfectly..." |
| Spelling: S/B "shown". |
| Page 562: | "My experiments with seeds has proved that some can stay alive in salt water..." |
| Number error: S/B "have proved". |
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