Charles and Emma (36 page)

Emma and Charles Waring, c. 1857
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From left to right: Leonard, Henrietta, Horace, Emma, Elizabeth, Frances, and a visitor at Down House
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Y PERMISSION OF THE
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The Sandwalk
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Down House (present-day photograph)
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Charles Darwin, 1880
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Darwin's signature, 1879: It was unusual for him to sign his full name.
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OURTESY OF
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EORGE
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discussion guide

Charles and Emma

by Deborah Heiligman

Reading Level:
Grades 7 and up

Discussion Questions

1.
What does it say about Charles's character that he made a pro/con list to decide whether he should get married or not?

 

2.
Dr. Robert Darwin allowed his children freedom of thought regarding religion. How do you think this affected Charles's professional life?

 

3.
Do you agree with Dr. Darwin's marital advice to his son?

 

4.
Explain the quote on page 46: “…education and environment produce only a small effect on the mind of anyone…most of our qualities are innate.” Does this sound like any popular scientific theory you know of?

 

5.
What does Charles mean when he uses the term “materialism”? (Chapter 7)

 

6.
Why did the author include information about slavery, and Charles's position and thoughts on the subject? (see page 72)

 

7.
Could Charles's theory of evolution have upset the church in ways other than unsettling the belief in creationism? (see page 74)

 

8.
At the bottom of page 120, Charles believes that revealing his theory on the mutability of species will be like murdering God. Is there a way to reconcile believing in God and accepting a theory such as evolution?

 

9.
Why did Emma help to edit Charles's sketch of his species theory? (see page 123)

 

10.
What do you think of Emma's morality story on page 165?

 

11.
Why do you think that the first book on the ability of species to change (
Vestiges of Natural History of Creation
) received more attention than Charles's book?

 

12.
Why do you think Charles chose to put God into the second edition of his book? What effect did it have on the work? (Chapter 27)

 

13.
How do you feel about Charles being buried in a church? Do you agree with Emma that he would have accepted the offer to be buried in Westminster Abbey?

 

14.
In the epilogue, Gwen, Charles's granddaughter, states, “Of course we always felt embarrassed if our grandfather were mentioned, just as we did if God were spoken of.” She describes Charles's study as “faintly holy and sinister, like a church.” She goes further on to say “At Down, there are more things to worship than anywhere else in the world.” How are these statements ironic?

questions for the author

Deborah Heiligman

© Matt Peyton/Getty Images

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I had a lot of different ideas of what I might be, but they all involved saving the world. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, which were turbulent and idealistic times. So I desperately wanted to fix all the things that were wrong in the world. I wanted to be a social worker, a lawyer, an investigative journalist. I always loved to write, so I thought I would write on the side no matter what I did (if I didn't end up being a journalist). I never thought I could be just an author. I didn't know people who were, and I thought it was an unrealistic dream. It
was
a dream, though.

What's your most embarrassing childhood memory?

I have this very clear and awful memory of going to my best friend and next-door neighbor's house Christmas morning and breaking a toy—by accident. In my memory, I did it many years in a row. (I was Jewish and they invited me over every year.) I have felt embarrassed and guilty about it for years. I recently told my friend how sorry I was, and she had no memory of it! Neither do any of her four sisters or her parents. What does
that
tell you?

What's your favorite childhood memory?

My dad didn't like vacations, but every year he would go to a medical meeting in a different city. My parents would take me out of school for a week or so, and the three of us would sightsee in whatever city his meeting was in. I remember learning a lot and laughing a lot. It was during these trips that my mother taught me the joys of people-watching (hotel lobbies are great for that!). I think that was the beginning of my life as a writer.

As a young person, who did you look up to most?

I looked up to a lot of people in my family, but I'd have to say my grandfather most of all. He was a lawyer who believed passionately in helping the underdog. He was known all over town for the kind and just man he was. And he gave me unconditional love. I still have letters he wrote to me when I was away at camp. He was a wonderful writer, and he believed in me. You can see it all in his letters. Gramps died my first week in college. His last words to me were “Attend to your work.” I'm doing the best I can.

What was your favorite thing about school?

I loved a lot of subjects in school until I hit tenth grade and started being scared of science and math. It's a shame I got scared. I don't know why I did. But I always loved English class most of all. You got to read and write! The other part of school I always loved was hanging out with my friends. I had a lot of really nice friends all the way through school, and I'm still in touch with many of them.

What was your least favorite thing about school?

Phys ed, which we called gym back then. Especially in middle school, which we called junior high. I never got off Mat 1 in gymnastics because I couldn't do a cartwheel. I still can't do one, and I want to hide under my desk thinking about it. Some things don't change. Maybe
this
is my most embarrassing childhood memory!

What were your hobbies as a kid? What are your hobbies now?

I don't seem to be a hobby-kind-of-person, at least not in the traditional sense of the word “hobby.” I get this from my dad. He was all about family and work (he was a helping-the-underdog-kind-of doctor!), and so am I. I love writing and researching, so I guess I'm lucky enough in my work that I don't need a hobby. But…I do think it's good to have things outside of work, so I'm trying to have some hobbies now. I run when I can (meaning when I'm not injured), and I always love to walk. Now that I live in New York City, I can combine walking with people-watching (which, I guess, is a hobby!). We are lucky enough to have a terrace, so I've also started gardening. And as I write this, I'm about to take my first pottery class since I was a kid. I also love to read (but that's not a hobby, that's a necessity) and cook (ditto?) and spend time with my husband (ditto!). I have one other activity people might consider a hobby, though some people I know consider it my
addiction
: Scrabble. I play constantly, especially with my son Aaron. We play on our iPhones. I taught him everything he knows about the game and I am living to regret it.

What was your first job, and what was your “worst” job?

They were the same! My first job, other than babysitting, was working in a shirt factory. I worked there one summer when I was taking trigonometry and driver's ed. I'd take trig, and then go to the shirt factory and trim threads off shirts. It was the most boring job ever. It was so tedious I looked forward to driver's ed, even though the instructor's method of teaching was to yell at me. Because the job was so dull, even when I got promoted to turning cuffs (wow), I went into my head a lot and made stuff up. I wrote my first short story while working in the factory. It was about a woman who worked in a factory. I don't remember much about it, but I remember her name was Leah. I wrote it in my head while I trimmed threads and turned cuffs, and then I'd go home and type it up. So that was good. But the job was good for another reason: It made me realize
for sure
that when I grew up I needed to get a job that used my mind.

How did you celebrate publishing your first book?

I would have had a glass of champagne, but I was pregnant, so my husband, older son, and I went out for ice cream. It was a picture book called
Into the Night
. But when I first heard it was accepted, I went out into my backyard and screamed.

Where do you write your books?

I mostly write my books at home, at my desk in my office. Since we moved to an apartment from a house, my office is also the gym. I do get ideas and have brainstorms in other places, so I have a notebook with me always. My favorite place to write other than my desk is—in the shower! I keep a waterproof notebook in there at all times. I wrote the first draft of the acknowledgments for
Charles and Emma
in the shower, and I made all kinds of notes for the book in there. I also wrote the first draft of a picture book called
Cool Dog
,
School Dog
in the shower. I also solve problems, come up with phrases, and get ideas when I'm walking or running.

Did you have a personal reason for writing
Charles and Emma?

Yes, I did. I graduated from college (Brown University) with a degree in religious studies. I had spent four years looking at the world from the point of view that religion shapes events from the private and personal to the global. I took only one science course, “Biology for Poets,” as we called it. Two weeks after I graduated, I met a man who was writing about science and looked at the world through that lens. We fell in love and got married! From the first time we met until today, we have talked about science and religion. For years he was the Darwin guy. He wrote a great, award-winning book about scientists who study evolution in the Galapagos, looking at the creation of new species of Darwin's finches. (The book is called
The Beak of the Finch
.) He worked on it for a long time, and we talked about Darwin and evolution and religion at the dinner table and in bed as we fell asleep at night.

What made you decide to write
Charles and Emma?

Years after he wrote
The Beak of the Finch
, my husband, Jon, said to me one day, “I just read that Charles Darwin's wife was religious. And they had a long and happy marriage. AND she was terrified he would go to hell, she would go to heaven, and they would be separated for all eternity.” My first question was: “Has anyone written a book about their marriage?” and as soon as I found out the answer was no, I knew it was a book I had to write. I did hesitate, though, because I thought Darwin was my husband's territory. And many other people have spent their lives thinking and writing about Darwin. But Jon kept encouraging me to write it, and the story kept pulling at me. It became the book I
had
to write!

What challenges did you face in the writing process, and how do you overcome them?

The biggest challenge I had was that so many people had written about Darwin, and I became overwhelmed by the shelves of books about him. After a few false starts, I realized that I didn't want to read what other people had written about him; I wanted to develop my own ideas. So I put away all the secondary sources and relied only on the primary sources—letters, journals, diaries, Darwin's autobiography—for most of the research and writing of the book.

What did you find most interesting when you were researching?

While I was reading the Darwins' letters, journals, and diaries, I kept expecting to find out something bad about Charles or their marriage, or even about Emma. But what I found was just what you see in the book—a deeply close and loving marriage, something they obviously worked on and treasured above all else. I found it powerfully moving. And that surprised—and pleased—me. The other thing that surprised me was how modern they were in their marriage and family life. Charles was a work-at-home dad! The kids ran in and out of his study all day. He bathed the babies, nursed the kids when they were sick. This was not a typical Victorian family that left the child-rearing to others. Think of it! This man—with the help of his brilliant wife—was a true genius who changed the world with his science and his writing—while his kids begged him for tape or scissors, or to come out and play.

How did you decide on your first sentence?

As my husband says, the marry/not marry list was a God-given beginning to this book about Charles and Emma! How could I not start there? And I knew I wanted to make it a scene, so starting with the act of his drawing the line down the middle of the piece of paper seemed the best. I fiddled with that first line over and over again until I got it as close to perfect as I could.

What's the best tip you've ever gotten about writing?

I've gotten great advice over the years. “Writing is all about revision” is one that stays with me. But here's what I most would like to pass on. The great writer Isaac Bashevis Singer asked himself a series of questions before he began to write any book, and I ask them of myself every time, too: Is this a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end? Does this story have to be written? Do I have a passion to write this story? Do I have the conviction that I am the only person to write this story? If you can answer yes to those questions, you must write the book!

What makes you laugh out loud?

My son Benjamin makes me laugh out loud all the time. He can set me into a fit of giggles so easily. And the sound of my son Aaron's laugh is the best sound in the world to me.

What's your favorite song?

I have many favorite songs, so may I list a few? OK, thanks! “Always” by Irving Berlin, the version sung by Alberta Hunter. “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen. I love the version sung by Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen. These words are my anthem: “Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There's a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in.” “The Way I Am” by Ingrid Michaelson. Almost anything by Joni Mitchell. I also love the songs my son Benjamin writes. I always have one of his songs going through my head. As I write this, it's one called “No Fun,” which starts, “You are too smart to date me / You've got your guard up / You maybe hate me…” Don't you want to hear what happens next?!

Who is your favorite historical person?

My favorite historical people are without a doubt Charles and Emma Darwin! I fell in love with both of them writing this book. I'd love to meet them, and their children.

If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you want for company?

My husband, of course (my constant companion). No contest. And my sons, if they'd be willing. Also, as many of my friends as I could get to join me. Do you think Charles and Emma would come?