Jane Austen & Charles Darwin : naturalists and novelists / Peter W. Graham (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-189) and index.

"3 or 4 families in a country village," or naturalists, novelists, empiricists, and serendipidists -- "An entangled bank," or sibling development" in a family ecosystem -- "Marry--Mary--marry" -- Variations on variation.

"Are Jane Austen and Charles Darwin the two great English empiricists of the nineteenth century? Peter W. Graham poses this question as he brings these two icons of nineteenth-century British culture into intellectual conversation in his provocative new book, Graham shows that while the one is generally termed a naturalist (Darwin's preferred term for himself) and the other a novelist, these characterizations are at least partially interchangeable, as each author possessed skills that would serve well in either arena. Both Austen and Darwin are naturalists who look with a sharp, cold eye at the concrete particulars of the world around them. Both are in certain senses novelists who weave densely particularized and convincingly grounded narratives that convey their personal observations and perceptions to wide readerships. When taken seriously, the words and works of Austen and Darwin encourage their readers to look closely at the social and natural worlds around them and form opinions based on individual judgment rather than on transmitted opinion"--Jacket.