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Caliban

The Missing Link

Daniel Wilson author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:21st Aug '14

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Caliban cover

Daniel Wilson (1816–92) brings together science and literary commentary in this 1873 exploration of evolutionary principles in The Tempest.

Although Shakespeare could not have known about evolution, he nonetheless created in The Tempest a creature halfway between animal and man which anticipated the modern idea of a missing link. In this 1873 monograph, Daniel Wilson (1816–92) uses the play to explore his anthropological theories.Having acquired a Shakespeare folio for a few shillings, anthropologist Daniel Wilson (1816–92) found in The Tempest a source of scientific intrigue. Writing more than two hundred years before Darwin propounded his theory of evolution, in his final play Shakespeare had created a missing link caught between the animal and the human. In this monograph, first published in 1873, Wilson uses the strange and unfortunate character of Caliban as a means through which to explore the principles of evolution. He traces many of the play's plot devices back to real events that perhaps inspired them - from storms in Bermuda to records of semi-human creatures around the world - and brings literary commentary into science as he links the relationships set out in the play to anthropological principles. This interdisciplinary approach makes the book both an entertaining exegesis of the play and a uniquely accessible explanation of contemporary scientific theories.

ISBN: 9781108063678

Dimensions: 216mm x 140mm x 17mm

Weight: 380g

298 pages