The book Angels and Ages by Adam Gopnik generally talks of the similarities between Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. Despite the fact that they were from different continents, it is quite remarkable that there are numerous similarities between the two. Through their efforts, both men managed to coauthor the history of the world in their own capacities. This paper is aimed at evaluating the various aspects in the book in an attempt to explain its relevance in our studies.
To begin with, the book starts on very inviting note. The author manages to pull the attention of the audience by not immediately getting on to the subject matter. Under normal circumstances, most authors would jump into the description of the book and the characters. However, Gopnik takes a poetic yet narrative approach. He says, “We are all pebbles dropped in the sea of history, where the splash strikes one way and the big tides run another…” The way he introduces the two main characters is not also normal when discussing the basic concepts of the book.
Running the development stories of both characters as a parallel from the beginning to the end has helped in comparing and contrasting them. At every stage of development, the characters are analyzed as single entities drawing what are considered similarities by the author. If otherwise the author had discussed the characters differently, then understanding the story or message that he was trying to put across would have been much more difficult. Interpretation of the character traits of each individual from one chapter to the other draws quite similar results, as the characters slowly become the icons that they are today.
The development of the characters is also quite impressive. We are informed from the word go of their births. We are informed of their families and social status so that we can grow alongside them understanding how far they have come in their development. We are informed that Lincoln was born into a comfortable lifestyle while Darwin was born in a comfortable but far from safe family. The setting of each individual’s birth just happens to prove the fact that the author is trying to push forward. The beginnings may be humble but what matters is what one does in their life that will help in defining them.
Having been born in what can be deemed as a rigid society, it is quite impressive that both characters are able to build their own ideologies. The author informs us that the period in which both Lincoln and Darwin grew was compounded by what is known as vertical thinking. People only believed what they were told to be true within the institutions set up. All other facts were considered fiction. From such a setting, the characters have been built to present powerful and self-opinionated figure of their time.
We are able to relate with the characters as if they are men that lived. We have grown to know these men as simply icons behind revolutionary ideas in the world. They were also men that did feel the pain and love that all of us. I would say that this probably the best aspect of the book that the author has been able to bring. Giving the characters, lives to live slightly take them down from the godlike pedestals that they have been put on from time immemorial. It makes us come to terms with the fact that both Darwin and Lincoln were first no more than fathers, sons, husbands and workers before they were the icons they are today. This can be seen in Lincoln where the author says, “He held the hands of his children with a smile on his face.”
In writing the book, the author has made use of poetic turns with a fondness for long sentences. This has an evocative effect on the readers. It may need at times to slow down and reread such long statements in order to draw any meaning out of then. One such line is, “It's a Victorian hallucinogen, where the whole world suddenly comes alive and begins moving, so that the likeness between seagulls and sandpipers on the beach where you are reading suddenly becomes spookily animated, part of a single restless whole, with the birds' giant lizard ancestors looming like ghosts above them.”
Despite the fact that majority of the book is quite easy to understand due to its narrative nature, use of poetic turns accompanied by long sentences may slightly deter one from reading the book. For such a short biography, one may also have the perception that the author may have been rushing through the book thus making it not exactly the easiest of books to understand. As a result of the rushing through, some of the perceived links between the two characters may at times be faulty or non-existent. One such example is where the author tries to comment on Darwin’s literary style. The author states that Darwin’s effectiveness was generally not through the use the metaphor but by avoiding it. It's a Victorian hallucinogen, where the whole world suddenly comes alive and begins moving, so that the likeness between seagulls and sandpipers on the beach where you are reading suddenly becomes spookily animated, part of a single restless whole, with the birds' giant lizard ancestors looming like ghosts above them.
Overall, the book is quite an enjoyable read for both history and creative writing readers. The writing is presented in such a way that it provides an insight into the lives of the two characters with a friendly tone. It has not been written with a fact of matter tone, as most biographies may tend to be. The wittiness in the language use also makes it one of the best biographies out there on either Darwin or Lincoln.
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