Darwin’s Wonders brings Darwin’s work into conversation with Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the grotesque. Many other authors have shaped the project along the way.
This evolving bibliography gathers the books and essays behind it. Where possible, I have linked directly to digitised editions and historical illustrations.
All of Darwin’s texts can be accessed via Darwin Online.
Baker, Henry. An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Polype: In a Letter to Martin Folkes, Esq.; President of the Royal Society. London: R. Dodsley, 1743. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.9130
Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Translated by Sergeiy Sandler. Foreword by Caryl Emerson. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2025.
Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
Bredekamp, Horst. Darwin’s Corals: A New Model of Evolution and the Tradition of Natural History. Translated, edited, and adapted by Elizabeth Clegg. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019.
Darwin, Charles. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–1882: With the Original Omissions Restored. Edited by Nora Barlow. London: Collins, 1958.
Darwin, Charles. Charles Darwin’s Zoology Notes and Specimen Lists from H.M.S. Beagle. Edited by Richard Keynes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Darwin, Charles. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London: John Murray, 1872.
Darwin, Charles. The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits. London: John Murray, 1881.
Darwin, Charles. Insectivorous Plants. London: John Murray, 1875.
Darwin, Charles. Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle, under the Command of Captain FitzRoy, R.N., from 1832 to 1836. London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
Darwin, Charles. A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with Figures of All the Species: The Balanidae (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidae, etc. London: Ray Society, 1854.
Darwin, Charles. A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with Figures of All the Species: The Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes. London: Ray Society, 1851.
Darwin, Charles. “Notebook B: Transmutation of Species.” 1837–38. Cambridge University Library, DAR 121.
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray, 1859.
Darwin, Charles. On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilised by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing. London: John Murray, 1862.
Darwin, Charles. The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs: Being the First Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle, under the Command of Capt. FitzRoy, R.N., during the Years 1832 to 1836. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1842.
Daston, Lorraine, and Katharine Park. Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150–1750. New York: Zone Books, 1998.
Ellis, John. An Essay towards a Natural History of the Corallines, and Other Marine Productions of the Like Kind, Commonly Found on the Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Printed for the author and sold by A. Millar, J. and J. Rivington, and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755. Museums Victoria.
Kayser, Wolfgang. The Grotesque in Art and Literature. Translated by Ulrich Weisstein. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963.
Phillips, Richard. The Hundred Wonders of the World, and of the Three Kingdoms of Nature. Published under the name Rev. C. C. Clarke. 13th ed. London: Sir Richard Phillips and Co., 1821.
Shaw, George. The Naturalist’s Miscellany; or, Coloured Figures of Natural Objects, Drawn and Described Immediately from Nature. Illustrated by Frederick Polydore Nodder. Vol. 2. London: Nodder & Co., 1790–91. Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Shaw, George. Zoological Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution in the Years 1806 and 1807. Vol. 1. London: Printed for George Kearsley by Thomas Davison, 1809. Internet Archive.
Smith, Jonathan. Charles Darwin and Victorian Visual Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Stott, Rebecca. Darwin and the Barnacle. London: Faber and Faber, 2003.
Stott, Rebecca. “Darwin’s Barnacles: Mid-Century Victorian Natural History and the Marine Grotesque.” In Transactions and Encounters: Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Roger Luckhurst and Josephine McDonagh, 151–81. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.
Ulin, Donald. “A Clerisy of Worms in Darwin’s Inverted World.” Victorian Studies 35, no. 3 (Spring 1992): 294–308. JSTOR.
Voss, Julia. Darwin’s Pictures: Views of Evolutionary Theory, 1837–1874. Translated by Lori Lantz. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
The bibliography is a work in progress; any thoughts, comments or recommendations are very welcome.