Incest and Influence: The Private Life of Bourgeois England

305 Pages·2009·0.89 MB·English

by  Adam Kuper

&
incest influence

&
incest influence
the private life of bourgeois en gland
adam kuper
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, Eng land
2009
Copyright © 2009 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kuper, Adam.
Incest and influence : the private life of bourgeois England / Adam Kuper.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-03589-8 (alk. paper)
1. Consanguinity—England—History—19th century.
2. Cross cousin marriage—England—History—19th century.
3. Incest—Social aspects—England—History—19th century.
4. Domestic relations—England—History—19th century.
5. Middle class—England—History—19th century.
6. Elite (social sciences)—England—History—19th century. I. Title.
HQ1026.K87 2009
306.85086′22094209034—dc22 2009016139
For Leila, Jesse, Joel, and Leo
Acknowledgments
This is my third book with Harvard University Press, and for the
third time I have enjoyed the support and encouragement of Mi-
chael Fisher, the most loyal and understanding of editors, and bene-
fited from the sympathetic expertise of Mary Ellen Geer, a wonder-
ful copy editor. A major award from the Leverhulme Trust gave me
time to get this proj ect going. Jytte Klausen, Simon Kuper, Horace
Freeland Judson, and Simon Gillett read a draft of this book, and
Roderick Floud, Dan Jacobson, and Richard Kuper read several
chapters. They all made many, often irritatingly acute criticisms,
obliging me to undertake major revisions. Sam-P ablo Kuper was a
patient resource at the Darwin Correspondence Project. Hannah
Lamprecht provided invaluable assistance in assembling and analyz-
ing genealogies. Julie M. Hartley prepared the diagrams.
Contents
Prologue: Darwin’s Marriage F 1
Introduction F 5
PART I A QUESTIoN oF INCEST
1 The Romance of Incest and the Love of Cousins F 31
2 The Law of Incest F 52
3 The Science of Incest and Heredity F 83
PART II FAMILY CoNCERNS
4 The Family Business F 107
5 Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect F 135
6 Difficulties with Siblings F 159
PART III THE INTELLECTUALS
7 The Bourgeois Intellectuals F 181
8 The Bloomsbury Version F 199
Coda: The End of the Line F 243
Notes F 257
Index F 288

PRoLoGUE
Darwin’s Marriage
Charles Darwin had been thinking about marriage—although not
to anyone in particular—since returning to En gland after his five-
year voyage on the Beagle. In July 1838 he took a sheet of paper,
wrote “This is the Question” at the top, and divided it into two col-
umns. “Marry” he wrote at the head of one column, “Not Marry”
at the head of the other. He then laid out a balance sheet of argu-
ments for and against.1
The arguments in favor were solid if unromantic. “Children—(if
it Please God)—Constant companion, (& friend in old age) who
will feel interested in one,—object to be beloved & played with.—
better than a dog anyhow.—Home, & someone to take care of
house—Charms of music & female chit- chat.—These things good
for one’s health.—but terrible loss of time.—”
Yet the bachelor life had its charms. “Freedom to go where one
liked—choice of Society & little of it. Conversation of cle ver men at
clubs—Not forced to visit relatives, & to bend in eve ry trifle.—”
And marriage had its drawbacks: “—to have the expense & anxi-
ety of children—perhaps quarrelling—Loss of time.—cannot read in
the Evenings—fatness & idleness—Anxiety & responsibility—less
1