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DESMOND**, ADRIAN: : HUXLEY: THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE [VOL I]

LONDON.MICHAEL JOSEPH,1994.

ISBN 0718136411.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/VG+.No owner inscrptn,no price-clip to dw/dj.Glossy, laminated subject sepia portrait photographic upper wrap,publisher advert/ critics' reviews for other author titles to rear; with negligible shelf-wear and minimal creasing/rubbing to edges and corners - internal sellotape repair to tear on upper right corner,no sellotape repair to closed nick at upper bd's foot of spine/backstrip.Head of spine/backstrip minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing. Top+fore-edges generally clean,contents bright,tight and near pristine.Clean,brown paper-covered bds with knock/ indentation to upper bd's foot of spine/backstrip, bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to same and clean,plain white eps.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj, 1st edn,v-xviipp+3-475pp [paginated] includes half-title+title-pages,contents+ illus lists,19 chapters in 5 chronological parts [covering 1825-1870],24pp of b/w contemporary illus+photographs in 3 blocks of 8pp between pp110/11,pp230/31 and pp350/51 respectively,abbreviations list, notes,20pp biblio and an index. T.H.Huxley was Darwin's bloddy-fanged bulldog.His giant scything intellect shook a prim Victorian society;his 'Devil's gospel' of evolution outraged.He put 'agnostic' into the vocabulary and cave men into the public consciousness.Adrian Desmond's fiery biography with its panoramic view of Dickensian life explains how this agent provocateur rose to become the century's great prophet. Desmond reveals the poverty and opium- hazed tragedies of young Tom Huxley's life.The drug-grinder's apprentice knew sots and scandals (one sent his sister fleeing to Tennesssee).Then came breakdowns signalling a genius close to madness.As surgeon's mate on the cockroach-infested frigate Rattlesnake, he descended into hell on the Barrier Reef, but was saved by a golden-haired girl in the penal colony.Huxley pulled himself up to fight Darwin's battles in the 1860's.But he left Darwin behind on the most inflammatory issues.He devastated angst-ridden Victorian society with his talk of ape ancestors. London turned out - from cardinals to Karl Marx - to be tantalized and tormented by his scintillating lectures.He conjured up magical pasts:of Neanderthal men in Ice Age caves and dinosaurs evolving into today's birds.He caused clerical wrath with his resurrected fossil humans and took the Dissenter's attacks on the privileged Church to an extreme. Out of his provocations came our image of science warring with theology.But out of them too came the West's new faith - agnosticism (he coined the word).In the process Huxley created a new,scientific, culture.Championing a modern education, creating an intellectually dominant profession,he epitomized the rise of the middle classes as they clawed power from the Anglican elite.This man from nowhere was making the modern world.With its rich evocation of Victorian times,Huxley does full justice to this enfant terrible, ending with his presidency of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1870.It is based on extensive archival research and contains many previously unpublished photographs and Huxley's own pen-and-ink sketches. See also rja2492.Both books can be bought singly or at a 15% discount for the two together. Please contact seller with order or preference,and,because of the weight of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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