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anniemccormick1025's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.5
reader4evr's review
3.0
Probably shouldn't have listened to this on audiobook when I was driving home yesterday because I was having problem listening and following along. It was just an ok book. Not really clear with everything that Charles Darwin was studying but an interesting read. He was kind of an odd duck with making so many lists but I do the same thing but not the pro/con ones he did. Loved his daughter Annie and sad when she passed. I do have to say that him and Emma completed each other and were a great couple.
deanopeez's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
bigbeardedguy's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
scorpi07's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
I enjoyed learning about the family life of Charles and Emma Darwin through their letters and writings. It was very interesting to hear how the timeline of Charles’s research and writing corresponded to his personal life’s timeline.
caitlin_89's review
4.0
"How could a stone image look to her like the man she had loved for so long?"
(on Emma's viewing a statue of her late husband)
Charles and Emma is a pretty all-encompassing look at Darwin's life from boyhood all the way to the years after his death, but focusing specifically on his relationship with his wife. This relationship is interesting because, from the time of her sister's death when they were young, Emma was a devout and devoted Christian whose strong faith was in stark contrast to Darwin's skepticism. Knowing well what they were getting into, and the huge dissimilarities, Charles and Emma took the plunge and married anyway. Their marriage was long, happy, and content. Emma was Charles' toughest and most helpful critic as he wrote. She understood him and supported him in every path he chose, but worried that his unbelief meant they wouldn't be together in heaven. "Don't think that it is not my affair and that it does not much signify to me," she wrote to him concerning his eternal wellbeing, "Everything that concerns you concerns me and I should be most unhappy if I thought we did not belong to each other for ever."
Warmer and fuller than his own autobiography (which was not written for publication, but for his offspring), this book almost made me wish I had been friends with the Darwin family. Biased toward the romantic, seeing as how it focuses on their married relationship, the whole thing is rather unrealistically rose-tinted. As much as I enjoyed the story, I feel a need now to seek out a book showcasing the unpleasant side of the Darwins, Charles especially. This book made him out to be a saint, and that I doubt. I have, however, cultivated a sort of respect for Darwin as a naturalist, author, and seeker of truth. I end with these sweet words Darwin penned about his wife:
"I marvel at my good fortune that she, so infinitely my superior in every single moral quality, consented to be my wife. She has been my wise adviser and cheerful comforter throughout life, which without her would have been during a very long period a miserable one from ill-health. She has earned the love and admiration of every soul near her."
(on Emma's viewing a statue of her late husband)
Charles and Emma is a pretty all-encompassing look at Darwin's life from boyhood all the way to the years after his death, but focusing specifically on his relationship with his wife. This relationship is interesting because, from the time of her sister's death when they were young, Emma was a devout and devoted Christian whose strong faith was in stark contrast to Darwin's skepticism. Knowing well what they were getting into, and the huge dissimilarities, Charles and Emma took the plunge and married anyway. Their marriage was long, happy, and content. Emma was Charles' toughest and most helpful critic as he wrote. She understood him and supported him in every path he chose, but worried that his unbelief meant they wouldn't be together in heaven. "Don't think that it is not my affair and that it does not much signify to me," she wrote to him concerning his eternal wellbeing, "Everything that concerns you concerns me and I should be most unhappy if I thought we did not belong to each other for ever."
Warmer and fuller than his own autobiography (which was not written for publication, but for his offspring), this book almost made me wish I had been friends with the Darwin family. Biased toward the romantic, seeing as how it focuses on their married relationship, the whole thing is rather unrealistically rose-tinted. As much as I enjoyed the story, I feel a need now to seek out a book showcasing the unpleasant side of the Darwins, Charles especially. This book made him out to be a saint, and that I doubt. I have, however, cultivated a sort of respect for Darwin as a naturalist, author, and seeker of truth. I end with these sweet words Darwin penned about his wife:
"I marvel at my good fortune that she, so infinitely my superior in every single moral quality, consented to be my wife. She has been my wise adviser and cheerful comforter throughout life, which without her would have been during a very long period a miserable one from ill-health. She has earned the love and admiration of every soul near her."
snowbenton's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating viewpoint on Charles Darwin that focuses on his life as a person more so than as a scientist. It was interesting to see how his studies were affected by his family, and how much he did after his much publicized voyage in his youth. It was wild to see his questioning and then rejection of religion, especially since his wife was so devout and wanted him to believe in heaven.