Darwin’s shadow on the Victorian imagination

Charles Darwin’s theories shook the foundations of Christian philosophy and led to a crisis of ideology. Writers and thinkers began to voice the uncomfortable possibility that, subject to the general laws of evolution, humanity was just as likely to degenerate as to progress. Marie-Louise Luxemburg will illustrate how these anxieties infused Victorian literature.

Marie-Louise Luxemburg is a writer and author, and former BRLSI convenor for History & Culture. She has frequently spoken on historical or literary subjects.