The Vital Science (book)

The Vital Science

Biology and the Literary Imagination,1860-1900

London: Allen & Unwin 1984

The argument of this book is that in late Victorian England a group of novelists and essayists quite consciously sought and found ideas in post-Darwinian biology that were peculiarly susceptible to imaginative transformation. The period 1860-1900 was a time of great confusion in biology; the natural selection hypothesis was in retreat before its acute critics, and no extension of evolutionary theory to human affairs was too bizarre to attract its quota of enthusiasts. Writers capitalized on this prevailing uncertainty and used it to their own artistic or polemic ends.

The core of The Vital Science is four interlocking chapters which examine certain ideas emerging from the new biology which particularly appealed to literary minds: evolutionism – the philosophy that organic adaptation is progressive in a human sense; degeneration- the belief that parasitism and retrogression are as applicable in the human sphere as in accounts of the extinction of species; eugenics – progress can be assured by aping nature's methods; and theories of heredity – read variously as encouraging or denying attempts to escape one's genetic destiny. Such ideas were used by many novelists, belles lettristes and journalists to warn, abuse, encourage or inspire, and the discussion ranges widely from minor utopian fiction to major novels by H.G. Wells, Samuel Butler and Thomas Hardy. The Vital Science is designed to interest historians and readers who will enjoy approaching the Victorian era from an unfamiliar angle as well as historians of biological theory betweenThe Origin of Species and Mendel.

The Vital Science has just been released as a 'Routledge Revival' - a series of influential historical/critical texts.