The following version was used to make this guide: Heilgiman, Deborah. Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009. This young adult historical nonfiction book has 33 chapters total, with a foreword and an epilogue, but for the purposes of this guide is broken into six sections. The book is historical nonfiction but written as if occurring in real time as the reader watches the young couple decide to marry and the rest of their lives unfold together.

Chapter 1 begins with a young Charles Darwin sitting in his rented room in London in 1838, and making a list of “Marry” or “Not Marry” (5). He thought of all the freedoms he could lose if he got married, and he recalled his recent travels on the Beagle. He worried about children, illness, and having enough time for his studies. He also considered living alone, working the rest of his life. Charles decided to ask his father for help. His father had pushed him to go to medical school as a teenager, but Charles instead left to go to theology school at Cambridge. Charles worried about religion and marriage, as his scientific studies and personal beliefs were coming into conflict with religious teachings at the time. He knew this could be a conflict in his marriage. His father advised Charles to get married but conceal his religious doubts.

Charles then decided to visit his Wedgwood relatives, his uncle and cousins in Maer. Charles had a goose, or confidential talk, with his cousin Emma while there and later wrote her to consider having more of those types of talks. Emma was not eager to marry, and felt quite close to her family and Maer. Emma grew up with a close sister Fanny, the two of them reading voraciously and traveling together. However, Fanny died in 1832, which not only devastated Emma but affirmed her belief in God, Heaven, and Hell.

While Charles struggled with his marriage decision, he visited the zoo, watching Jenny, an orangutan, and noticing her human-like traits. He also considered Malthus and his essay on population and food scarcity. Charles compared this with the birds in the Galapagos, how they differed from island to island, and how their beaks were shaped to crack particular nuts. He grew confident in this theory that species are not immutable.

Charles also decided to propose to Emma, which he did in November of 1838, and she accepted. The two grew close as their wedding date approached, but also worried about the religious void between them. Emma worried about the afterlife for Charles. Charles worried about Emma's concerns, but also about the public reaction to his new theories.

In January of 1839 the two married, despite their religious differences, and fell into marital bliss. Emma was soon pregnant and Charles’s first book about his voyage on the Beagle was published to much acclaim. That December their first child, William, or “Doddy,” was born. Charles was a doting father and loved to do experiments on his son. In 1841 the Darwins' second child, Annie, was born, making their house full. Charles published another book in 1842, and the family soon moved to a suburb of London for more space. They were soon pregnant again, and Emma delivered Etty in 1843.

In the summer of 1844, Charles published another book, this time about geology. He also wrote a draft book about natural selection that he gave to Emma to review.

In the summer of 1845, the fourth Darwin child, George, was born, as Charles begins to explore barnacles. The house grew increasingly chaotic, as three more children - Elizabeth, Frank, and Lenny - followed soon after. In 1850 Annie, the Darwins’ nine-year-old at the time, grew sick and they desperately tried a variety of remedies. Charles and Emma argued back and forth on religion, and as Annie grew sicker, Charles struggled even more. In 1851 Annie died, devastating both parents, and further confirming Charles’s religious doubts, and Emma’s beliefs.

Meanwhile, Charles published two books on barnacles, while the house grew with seven, then eight children once Horace was born.

In 1854, Charles returned to his studies of natural selection. In 1856 Emma gave birth to Charles Waring, their last child, but he was sickly and did not live long. While burying Charles Waring in 1858, Charles’s friends, Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker, put together Darwin’s essay along with Alfred Wallace’s recent essay to present to the Linnean Society - getting no reaction. Charles felt emboldened to write and publish his book, The Origin of Species, which outlined the principles of natural selection, in November of 1859. The book was an immediate success. The following June (1860), a scientific conference at Oxford debated the book, but Darwin was too ill to attend. The conference became a famous back and forth about religion versus science. Illness continued to plague the Darwin household, though Emma took care of everyone, and wrote Charles letters about religion, suggesting he might feel better if he prayed.

The children started to grow up, while Charles became absorbed in new fascinations like human expressions and worms. Despite his hill health, he and Emma continued their routines. In 1871 he published The Descent of Man, finally making the case for how humans evolved from animals, using the word evolution for the first time. This received an expected mixed reception from the public. They started to have grandchildren, and Emma and Charles settled into life with them, and with Charles’s growing international acclaim. On April 17, 1882, Charles died with his family by his side, saying to Emma, “Remember what a good wife you have been to me” (224). Charles was buried in Westminster Abbey next to Sir Isaac Newton. Emma lived 14 years longer, editing his autobiography with their son Frank. She died in 1896, and their daughter Etty later published her letters. The book ends with a reminder of their successful marriage, and Charles’s note about “Marry Q.E.D.” in his Marry/Not Marry list.