The world, he wrote, resembles ‘one great slaughter-house, one universal scene of rapacity and injustice.’ Competitive natural selection in a nutshell? Erasmus Darwin (The real source of 'Frankenstein' as well as Evolution) Ashton Nichols, Department of English, Dickinson College ^ | Ashton Nichols Posted on 02/06/2005 1:39:50 PM PST by gobucks. Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote the Preface to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in September 1817. Although much has been written about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the part played by Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) has been almost entirely neglected.This is odd as, apart from some ghost stories, Dr Darwin is the one influence mentioned in both the 1816 and 1831 prefaces to the book. Erasmus Darwin, British physician, poet, and botanist noted for his republican politics and materialistic theory of evolution. one man, no woman involved) Therefore he is reversing the evolutionary ladder described by Darwin Mary Shelley’s idea for Frankenstein came as she overheard a conversation between her husband (Percy Shelley) and Lord Byron in which they referred to Erasmus Darwin. This is odd as, apart from some ghost stories, Dr Darwin is the one influence mentioned in both the 1816 and 1831 prefaces to the book. Raffaella Simili The preface to the first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) opens with the following words : “the event on which this fiction is founded has been supposed by Dr. Darwin and some of the physiological writers of Germany as not of impossible occurence” Erasmus Darwin, British physician, poet, and botanist noted for his republican politics and materialistic theory of evolution. The intent was to examine the intersections between biology and literature. He was a famed medical doctor and poet, a renowned botanist and herbalist, who is known to have given lectures on anatomy in the cellar of his own home. Erasmus Darwin arrived at his conclusions through an "integrative" approach: he used his observations of domesticated animals, the behaviour of wildlife, and he integrated his vast knowledge of many different fields, such as paleontology, biogeography, systematics, embryology, and comparative anatomy. But in the 1800s, before the sciences became so specialized,…

In Thursday’s class, we looked at two texts—Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein and Erasmus Darwin’s poetry. The representation of science in poetry or science in literature is a fascinating subject—and one that I play with.

Although Charles Darwin is celebrated as the founding father of evolution, his neglected ancestor was writing about evolution long before he was even born. As a natural philosopher, he was the first to explain the formation of clouds and describe the entire process of photosynthesis in plants. Although much has been written about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the part played by Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) has been almost entirely neglected.This is odd as, apart from some ghost stories, Dr Darwin is the one influence mentioned in both the 1816 and 1831 prefaces to the book.