HUXLEY: The Devil's Disciple
by Desmond, Adrian
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Fine/Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0718136411
- ISBN 13
- 9780718136413
- Seller
-
Los Angeles, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London, UK: Michael Joseph, 1994. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Fine/Fine. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) was Darwin's bloody-fanged bulldog. His giant scything intellect shook a prim Victorian society; his "Devil's gospel" of evolution outraged. He put "agnostic" into the vocabulary and cave men into the public consciousness. Adrian Desmond's fiery biography with its panoramic view of Dickensian life explains how this agent provocateur rose to become the century's greatest prophet.Synoptic in its sweep and evocative in its details, Desmond's biography reveals the poverty and opium-hazed tragedies of young Tom Huxley's life as well as the accolades and triumphs of his later years. The drug-grinder's apprentice knew sots and scandals and breakdowns that signaled a genius close to madness. As surgeon's mate on the cockroach-infested frigate Rattlesnake, he descended into hell on the Barrier Reef, but was saved by a golden-haired girl in the penal colony.Huxley pulled himself up to fight Darwin's battles in the 1860s, but left Darwin behind on the most inflammatory issues. He devasted angst-ridden Victorian society with his talk of ape ancestors, and tantalized and tormented thousands-from laborers to ladies of society, cardinals to Karl Marx-with his scintillating lectures. Out of his provocations came our image of science warring with theology. And out of them, too, came the West's new faith-agnosticism (he coined the new word).Champion of modern education, creator of an intellectually dominant profession, and president of the Royal Society, in Desmond's hands Huxley epitomizes the rise of the middle classes as the clawed power from the Anglican elite. His modern godless universe, intriguing and terrifying, millions of years in the making, was explored in his laboratory at South Kensington; his last pupil, H. G. Wells, made it the foundation of twentieth-century science fiction.Touching the crowning achievements and the crushing depths of both the man and his times, this is the epic story of a courageous genius whose life summed up the social changes from the Victorian to the modern age. Written with enormous zest and passion, huxley is about the making of our modern Darwinian world. Illustrated with three sections of black-and-white photographs. 474 pp, with Index.Very, fine, unread, first British edition, first printing, in fine, mylar-protected dust jacket. [Not remaindeer-marked or price-clipped] A113
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Details
- Bookseller
- Joe Staats, Bookseller (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 024880
- Title
- HUXLEY: The Devil's Disciple
- Author
- Desmond, Adrian
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition 1st Printing
- ISBN 10
- 0718136411
- ISBN 13
- 9780718136413
- Publisher
- Michael Joseph
- Place of Publication
- London, UK
- Date Published
- 1994
- Pages
- 496
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall
Terms of Sale
Joe Staats, Bookseller
Books shipped in secure packaging via USPS Media Mail, Priority Mail or Global Priority Mail, upon receipt of payment, unless customer requests another method of delivery. Shipping is within 24 hrs. of receipt of payment for money orders, and after three business days for personal checks. All book jackets are protected in mylar covers from Brodart. Customers have three business days within which to contact us with complaints about merchandise by e-mail. Returns must be approved, in original packaging material, and in the same condition as when shipped. Because we make every effort to have the best possible merchandise in the best condition, to describe it accurately and to package it securely, we will in most cases accept approved returns. Approved returns will be cheerfully refunded, or credit given toward other books. Our aim is to please, and to earn your return business with superior service and prompt delivery.
About the Seller
Joe Staats, Bookseller
Biblio member since 2003
Los Angeles, California
About Joe Staats, Bookseller
Modern Literature, Mysteries, and More!
We specialize in collectible, contemporary signed first editions. First edition means the first printing. (Later printings of the first edition are typically not printed on acid-free paper, and should be avoided by collectors.) Signatures are obtained by us in person. Inscribed books sold by us may contain a line, a phrase, or a sketch that the author has chosen to add. Our signed books are not dedicated to anybody in particular (not to your grandmother, your Aunt Gladys, your ex-lover or your former cellmate), except in the rare case of a presentation copy from an author to a noteworthy person. All our books are hardcover, unless the book is an Advance Reading Copy, Uncorrected Proof, or PBO. You can expect that the books we send you will be as described, and in a physical condition worthy of the author’s having signed them. We do not sell remainder-marked books, signed or otherwise
We specialize in collectible, contemporary signed first editions. First edition means the first printing. (Later printings of the first edition are typically not printed on acid-free paper, and should be avoided by collectors.) Signatures are obtained by us in person. Inscribed books sold by us may contain a line, a phrase, or a sketch that the author has chosen to add. Our signed books are not dedicated to anybody in particular (not to your grandmother, your Aunt Gladys, your ex-lover or your former cellmate), except in the rare case of a presentation copy from an author to a noteworthy person. All our books are hardcover, unless the book is an Advance Reading Copy, Uncorrected Proof, or PBO. You can expect that the books we send you will be as described, and in a physical condition worthy of the author’s having signed them. We do not sell remainder-marked books, signed or otherwise
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