From Arthur Nicols 15 April 1871
The Priory | Mill Hill | NW.
April. 15 1871.
Dear Sir.
I have to thank you for your kind communication relative to the editions (?) of “the Descent of Man”—1
As one of the reading public I protest against the incompetent and dishonest criticism of your work which has appeared in almost every one of the Journals except the “Academy” “Nature” and “The Field”.2 The two most notable examples of incompetency and dishonesty appeared in the Athenaeum and Times, to the shame of English Literature.3 Ignorance of the subject and total incompetency to deal with the facts may be pardoned; but when an author is deliberately misrepresented, his strongest cases put out of sight, and his text cut up to suit the critic’s case and jumbled with matter for which the author never was nor could be responsible; when whole columns are quoted without acknowledgment I cannot conceive any thing more disgraceful. Surely we are in want of sound independent criticism not based on mercantile considerations. As far as I can see, the Academy seems likely to fulfil this condition. I expected something better from the Saturday Review4 than a notice which was feeble at the best.
yours faithfully | Arthur Nicols.
To | Chas Darwin. Esq. F.R.S.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
[Leifchild, John R.] 1871. Review of Descent. Athenæum 4 March 1871, pp. 275–7.
Pye-Smith, Philip Henry. 1871. Review of Descent of man, by Charles Darwin. Nature, 6 April 1871, pp. 442–4, 13 April 1871, pp. 463–5.
Summary
Objects to the negative reviews of Descent, notably in the Athenæum and the Times.
The exceptions are the Academy, Nature, and his own, in the Field [37 (1871): 210].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7687
- From
- Robert Arthur (Arthur) Nicols
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Mill Hill
- Source of text
- DAR 172: 57
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7687,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7687.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19