Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Indeterminacy of Natural Law

Part One | Origins

1. The Very Notion of ?Real? Reciprocity between Literature and Science

2. The Power Dynamics of Sexual Selection

3. Translations, Translators, and the Sexual Politics of Sexual Selection in Spain

Part Two | Adaptations

4. Suitors and Selectors ? Jacinto Octavio Picon

5. Rivalries and Rituals ? Leopoldo Alas (Clarin)

6. Heirs and Errors ? Benito Perez Galdos

Part Three | Speciations

7. A Romance with Darwin in the Evolutionary Noche of Alejandro Sawa

8. The Religious Descent of Armando Palacia Valdes

9. Emilia Pardo Bazan, Reproduction, and Change

Conclusion: The Imperfect Science of Conscience

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Male-male rivalry and female passive choice, the two principal tenets of Darwinian sexual selection, raise important ethical questions in The Descent of Man--and in the decades since--about the subjugation of women. If female choice is a key component of evolutionary success, what impact does the constraint of women's choices have on society? The elaborate courtship plots of 19th century Spanish novels, with their fixation on suitors and selectors, rivalry, and seduction, were attempts to grapple with the question of female agency in a patriarchal society. By reading Darwin through the lens of the Spanish realist novel and vice versa, Travis Landry brings new insights to our understanding of both: while Darwin's theories have often been seen as biologically deterministic, Landry asserts that Darwin's theory of sexual selection was characterized by an open ended dynamic whose oxymoronic emphasis on "passive" female choice carries the potential for revolutionary change in the status of women.

Travis Landry is assistant professor of Spanish at Kenyon College.