快猫短视频

Annie鈥檚 Box by Randal Keynes, Fourth Estate, 拢16.99, ISBN
1841150606

ANNIE鈥橲 BOX is a family memoir, a form that usually appeals more to
those within the family than without it. But when the family name is Darwin,
interest quickens.

Darwinalia is well-ploughed territory, so any author needs something
distinctive. What Randal Keynes, a great-great grandson of Charles Darwin,
offers us is the book鈥檚 eponymous box鈥攁ctually a writing case.

Annie, the Darwins鈥� eldest daughter, died when she was 10. You soon realise
that the box itself conceals no revelatory secrets. But the box, and its humdrum
contents, symbolise Charles鈥檚 deep and lasting fondness for Annie. Taken
together with the book鈥檚 subtitle (鈥淐harles Darwin, his daughter and human
evolution鈥�), you begin to anticipate a profound insight: how little Annie holds
the key to Darwin鈥檚 thinking on our ancestry.

Halfway through, by which time you鈥檝e learned a little of Darwin and his
thought, and a great deal about the childhood doings of Annie and her siblings,
you begin to wonder where the beef is. When it does come, more than 200 pages
in, it鈥檚 not that nourishing. Keynes鈥檚 insight amounts to the fact that Annie鈥檚
death reinforced Darwin鈥檚 views on nature鈥檚 ruthless culling of the weak. As an
influence, this hardly compares with the years he spent on the Beagle
expedition.

Keynes does engagingly describe the detail of Darwin鈥檚 domestic and family
life. But, while Annie鈥檚 Box may complement previous works on the roots
of Darwinism, it hardly replaces them.