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Darwin Correspondence Project

From E. B. Tylor   29 January [1875]1

Athenæum Club | Pall Mall

Jany 29

My dear Sir

I did no more than glance at the Q.R. & observe that it was what one may call an “eclectic review”, picking the one point in the reviewer’s favour & leaving the ninety & nine that told against him. It is only lately that I have noticed the part that shows how faithfully Mr Mivart has followed the ancient tactics of his Church against heretics.2

May I take this opportunity of asking you about Brehm’s “Thierleben”. I have suggested that if there is no English translation, perhaps my wife might undertake one. Knowing how occupied you are, I will ask you if you think the scheme desirable, to let me know, otherwise I shall understand that you do not think it worth doing.3

Believe me Dear Sir | Yours very truly | E B Tylor

Charles Darwin Esq

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to E. B. Tylor, [28 January 1875].
See letter to E. B. Tylor, [28 January 1875]. In 1874, St George Jackson Mivart had published an anonymous essay review of anthropological works by Tylor and John Lubbock in the Quarterly Review ([Mivart] 1874). Mivart was a Catholic.
CD had received an enquiry about translation from the publisher of Alfred Edmund Brehm’s Illustrirtes Thierleben (Illustrated animal life; Brehm et al. 1864–9) in 1867 (Correspondence vol. 15, letter from H. J. Meyer, 30 July 1867). The first English translation of part of Brehm et al. 1864–9 was Cassell’s book of birds (Thomas Rymer Jones trans. [1869–73]. Tylor’s wife was Anna Rebecca Tylor. No reply to this letter has been found.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

[Mivart, St George Jackson.] 1874b. Primitive man: Tylor and Lubbock. [Essay review of the works of John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor.] Quarterly Review 137 (1874): 40–77.

Summary

Does CD think it desirable for EBT’s wife to produce a new English translation of A. E. Brehm’s work [Illustrirtes Thierleben (1864–7)]?

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9833
From
Edward Burnett Tylor
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Athenaeum Club
Source of text
DAR 178: 203
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9833,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9833.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23

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