Peter Raby
Tiger Beetles on Ternate
Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters from the Malay Archipelago
By John van Wyhe & Kees Rookmaaker (edd)
Oxford University Press 319pp £16.99
The centenary of Alfred Russel Wallace’s death is an appropriate year in which to publish this edition of his correspondence from the Malay Archipelago. Wallace described his eight-year journey, or sequence of journeys, undertaken between 1854 and 1862 as the ‘central and controlling incident’ of his life. Over its course, he made heroically extensive collections containing many ‘new’ species; he conceived the dividing line between the Asian and Australasian biological regions now known as the Wallace Line; and he wrote a number of hugely influential scientific papers, including the formulation of his theory of natural selection, which astonished Darwin and led swiftly to the joint announcement of the theory at the Linnean Society in 1858 and, as a direct consequence, the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species the following year.
Wallace, of course, wrote his own account of his archipelago travels, a wonderful book dedicated to Darwin that has never been out of print since it was published in 1869. But the structure Wallace adopted is largely geographical and thematic, which makes it difficult at times to follow the pattern
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk