This new title from the University Press of Florida rides on the success of popular genres and trends in today’s literature, namely biography, historical romance and historical accounts with strong female protagonists. Upon delving into my review copy, however, it was quite apparent why the authors James D. Loy and Kent M. Loy chose to publish with an academic rather than a commercial press. While “Emma Darwin” is a great resource for historians, researchers and college students with papers due, it is not the sort of book that would appeal to a wider readership, regardless of how hard the authors seem to try.

The premise of “Emma Darwin,” as presented on the back flap, promises an insider’s view into the extraordinary journeys (maritime and otherwise) of the originator of modern evolutionary theory and the equally compelling woman who caught his eye, ran his household and managed to put up with her husband’s many eccentricities and increasing irreverence for religion. The reader is lured in by the promise of adventures, romance and heresy.

The book opens, however, with a very dry, very dense account of the Darwin-Wedgwood family’s genealogy (Charles and Emma, née Wedgwood, were cousins). It then proceeds to explain, in great detail, the family’s various business ventures and political stances. Were it not for the title of the book, the reader would be hard-pressed to tell which of the numerous Wedgwood cousins was actually the protagonist – or if there was a protagonist at all. The only hint thereof is a page here and there about Emma’s various suitors, pre-Charles, and her disinterest in all of them.

The book gets better about 60 pages in, when we meet the intrepid, somewhat rebellious Charles Darwin, who became a naturalist and went gallivanting around the world, despite his father’s original insistence that he become a clergyman. This is still, however, quite problematic; the work is supposed to be a biography of Emma rather than Charles Darwin, and presumably, the authors found her an interesting and fruitful enough subject that they wrote an entire book about her.

However, they do seem to realize, at this point, that they ought to be writing for a broader audience; they lay off the genealogy and soften their rather clinical style. Here, the authors betray their unfamiliarity with commercial writing. Their attempts to sound more colloquial and accessible are perhaps best exemplified by their description of Charles Darwin’s hesitancy to marry: he was supposedly afraid that “marriage might cramp his style.”

While it is abundantly clear that the authors are accomplished historians – the book is meticulously researched – it is equally clear that they have very little experience with the craft of storytelling. Most of the book reads as though it were a very detailed plot summary of a novel, rather than a compelling story in its own right. While Green Library would do well to acquire a copy (and shelve it in the history section), the average reader would do better with traditional historical fiction.