SOURCE:: “‘A Dismal Swamp’: Darwin, Design, and Evolution in Our Mutual Friend,” in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 49, No. 1, June, 1994, pp. 51-74.

In the following essay, Fulweiler explores the connections between Darwin's theories and Dickens's fiction, particularly Our Mutual Friend; both offer worlds of inter-connected individuals competing for advantage with no hint of a transcendental master plan for the world.

Let it be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close-fitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life.

The Origin of Species

A fresh reading of Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859) reveals once more the Victorian gentleman-scientist's comprehensive vision of the mutual relationship of organic beings to each other and to their environment. One sees not only Darwin's recognition of the connectedness of things but also his delight in this aspect of the natural world. J. W. Burrow remarks...