THE EVOLUTION OF INANIMATE OBJECTS

...a Nabokovian tale of Darwinian theory gone wrong.

While carrying out historical research at Ontario's London Asylum, psychiatrist Harry Karlinsky comes across a familiar surname in the register, one Thomas Darwin of Down, England. Could this Thomas, involuntarily admitted to the asylum in 1879, be a relation of the eminent scientist Charles Darwin? In a narrative woven from letters, memoir abstracts, photographs and illustrations, what emerges is a sketch of Thomas's life -- from his earliest days at Down House and schooling, through his scholarly works, to his confinement and death within a North American asylum. In this factitious biography, Karlinsky gives us a Nabokovian tale of Darwinian theory gone wrong.Through the sometimes doctored, sometimes invented writings of histori- cal figures, we see the short life of Thomas, Darwin's youngest child and a young scien- tist in his own right, whose novel application of evolutionary theory centres on knives and forks and spoons. Although decisively a work of fiction, The Evolution of Inanimate Objects invites sustained uncertainty as to whether Thomas Darwin is a character of pure invention or simply a heretofore little known figure, one reclaimed from the dusty registers of the London Asylum by the diligent research of Karlinsky: scholar, historian, and first-rank provocateur.