Dispelling the Darkness: Voyage in the Malay Archipelago and the Discovery of Evolution by Wallace and Darwin

“The story of Wallace will never be the same again. John van Wyhe has delved deeply into archives and brings Wallace’s travels wonderfully back to life by discovering new facts about his voyage and theories. Without downplaying the impact of Darwin, van Wyhe’s book reveals Wallace as a great evolutionary thinker in his own right, who truly deserves to be considered in context.”– Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University

“This book greatly advances our knowledge of Wallace by correcting a plethora of misleading myths, by reconstructing Wallace’s travels, experiences and reflections with authoritative precision, interpretive sophistication, archival documentation and by insightful clarifications of Wallace and Darwin’s interactions, divergences and convergences. The overall result is a major scholarly contribution to the intellectual and social history of Wallacean science and of Darwinian science in their original, distinctive cultural contexts.” — Jonathan Hodge, Honorary Fellow, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds

“The first published notebook of Wallace’s travel to the Malay Archipelago is a long-awaited addition to all the biographies and studies, as they offer the unique insight into the development of Wallace’s thinking during his long journey. John van Wyhe makes extensive use of Wallace’s notes, but only in their totality they make an impact and give way to emergence of Wallace’s personality in many sides.”– Thomas Weber, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“Van Wyhe is not guilty of any such bias against Wallace and in fact deserves these reviewers’ thanks for elucidating for the first time exactly how these two fascinating men discovered the way life on Earth evolves.”– Gordon Chancellor, author of The Dispersal of Darwin

“The book has marvelous illustrations of the flora and fauna observed by Wallace, as well as other images of the period, and is ideal for historian as well as naturalists.” —CHOICE

“This book is certainly one of the best resources for documenting Wallace’s time in the Malay archipelago, as well as giving a good and balanced overview of his life. It also achieves what the author sets out to do: putting the record straight.”– Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

“The facts of variability, of the struggle for existence, of adaptation to conditions, were notorious enough; but none of us had suspected that the road to the heart of the species problem lay through them, until Darwin and Wallace dispelled the darkness.” —T H Huxley (1887)

“The facts of variability, of the struggle for existence, of adaptation to conditions, were notorious enough; but none of us had suspected that the road to the heart of the species problem lay through them, until Darwin and Wallace dispelled the darkness.”

T H Huxley (1887)

Charles Darwin remains one of the most famous scientists in history. His life and work have been intensively investigated by historians for decades. In comparison, the other man to conceive of evolution by natural selection is comparatively forgotten Alfred Russel Wallace. This book is based on the most thorough research programme ever conducted on Wallace. There are many surprises. As he travelled from island to island collecting vast numbers of exotic birds and insects, his ideas about species gradually evolved. This book reveals for the first time how Wallace solved one of the greatest mysteries of life on Earth.

Contents: Introduction; Great Expectations; Empires of Steam; Singapore; Malacca and Borneo; Testing the Waters; Crossing the Line; In Search of Paradise; Struggle and Spice; The Longest Day; Darwin’s Delay; Crossing Back; Counting Up.