In general, a variorum may be regarded as a specific work that unites all variants of the same text. Used for textual criticism, a variorum allows to track changes and textual decisions made by an author. On the one hand, a variorum may be regarded as a valuable historical method – as texts traditionally reflect the cultural, social, and scientific realities, their changes indicate the shifts in these processes as well. Moreover, a variorum is also a beneficial approach to scientific texts as it demonstrates how a scientist’s views and perceptions have been changing throughout a particular period of time. As the purpose and advantage of a variorum were addressed during a lecture, the purpose of this paper is to apply received knowledge on practice using the Online Variorum of Darwin’s work.
In relation to Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, a variorum shows how the author changed his work from one edition to another, indicating additional factors that determined these changes. For instance, in the edition of 1859, Darwin wrote: “From these several considerations and from the many special facts which I have collected, but which I am not here able to give, I am strongly inclined to suspect that, both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, an occasional intercross with a distinct individual is a law of nature.”1 At the same time, in the edition of 1872, he provided the following text: “From these several considerations and from the many special facts which I have collected, but which I am unable here.. to give, it appears that with animals and plants an occasional intercross between distinct individuals is a very general, if not universal, law of nature.”2 On the one hand, both texts have a close meaning – on the other hand, these variants indicate the change in the author’s perceptions on the basis of external factors.
In general, later editions may be characterized by the minimization of categorization. In other words, Darwin replaced all statements related to his certainty with more neutral variants. This shift indicates the development of scientific theories that presuppose the discovery of new data. First of all, the author admitted that nature is not simple – thus, it is impossible to make peremptory statements.3 In addition, the introduction of new scientific research initiated multiple studies dedicated to the same topic. In this case, when other authors updated or confronted Darwin’s theses, he had to make corrections. This notion is supported by the fact that the author’s later editions include the results of other researchers.
In addition, a variorum allows to evaluate the author’s view of the world and science using a particular concept. In this case, the concept of monstrosities was chosen due to its significance for natural selection. According to Darwin, monstrosities are generally injurious and non-useful deviations of structure. Reflection on the reasons for their occurrence in both wild nature and domestic production, the author underlines the impact of unfavorable conditions that affect a species’ individual characteristics and lead to monstrosities in a state of nature. It supports Darwin’s statement that nature may be characterized by the highest complexity.
Bibliography
Bordalejo, Barbara. Online Variorum of Darwin’s Origin of Species: First British Edition (1859).
Levine, George. “The Prose of On the Origin of Species.” In Darwin the Writer (Oxford: Oxford Scholarship Online, 2012), 1-30.
Footnotes
- Barbara Bordalejo, Online Variorum of Darwin’s Origin of Species: first British edition (1859), 101.
- Ibid.
- George Levine, “The Prose of On the Origin of Species,” in Darwin the Writer (Oxford: Oxford Scholarship Online, 2012), 2.