The diaries of Charles Darwin’s wife have been published online, giving an unparalleled insight into the day-to-day life of the world’s greatest naturalist.
Sixty pocket books are still in existence. They cover Emma Darwin’s life from 1824, when on January 1 the 16-year-old girl records that she “played at charades”, until her death in 1896.
“These books were found in a cardboard box in an old cupboard about 20 years ago,” said the director of Darwin Online, Dr John van Wyhe. “People weren’t really interested in the day-to-day Darwin then, just the Origin of Species.”
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This intimate record of Darwin’s daily life, known to only a handful of scholars at Cambridge university until now, is in such a fragile state that academics could only use microfiche copies. Now it can be read in facsimile all over the world.
Extract taken from;
Wife’s diaries shed light on Darwin by Richard Lea
Guardian Unlimited, Monday March 12, 2007