Prologue

This prologue describes events that occurred in the lives of Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Disraeli in the summer of 1858. The publication in November 1859 of Darwin's groundbreaking Origin of Species, had its catalyst in June 1858. That was when Darwin, fearing that he might lose precedence by continuing to delay publication of his painstaking researches, was galvanised into writing up his findings quickly and having them published in one readable volume. For Dickens, the summer of 1858 was one of horror. Aged forty-six and already the famous author of several successful novels, he lost his head and publicly advertised his separation from Catherine, his wife of twenty-two years, while disclaiming rumours of a relationship with either his sister-in-law or an actress aged nineteen. He acted impulsively and brutally, losing friends, dismissing his publishers, causing anguish to his wife and children. As for Disraeli, he became chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Derby's reforming Tory government.

June 1858, Part I

This chapter details events that occurred in London in June 1858. In the early days of June, Charles Darwin was not yet ready to declare his findings beyond his close circle of scientific acquaintances. However, the death of 84-year-old Robert Brown on 10 June, keeper of botany at the British Museum and former president of the Linnaean Society, the oldest biological society in the world, made a difference to Darwin's publication plans which he could not have foreseen. Other topics covered by the chapter include the dissolution of Dickens's marriage; the public denouncement of Bulwer Lytton by his wife Rosina; and gossipy newspapers that closely followed the political and social events in the summer of 1858.

1858 in History

This chapter details events that occurred in London in the in the summer of 1858. For Charles Darwin, the hot summer of 1858 was the time of crisis, as it was, for different reasons, for his close contemporaries Charles Dickens and Benjamin Disraeli. Other Victorians of lasting fame, and some whose notoriety did not outlast the stifling summer heat, found themselves intricately involved in political, social, or cultural events of national importance during the short four-month period from May to August 1858. Several far-reaching acts of parliament were debated and passed: on the governance of India, Jewish representation in parliament, the medical profession, marriage and divorce, and — most visibly and nauseatingly — the ‘Great Stink’ for which 1858 is best known.

June 1858, Part II

This chapter details events that occurred in London in June 1858. These include the soaring temperatures which reached 94.5 °F in the shade on 16 June; weekly newspapers' focus on the heat, the Thames, and public health; the show of famous American horse tamer, James Rarey, along with his book The Art of Taming Wild Horses as one of the entertainment sensations of the year; the popularity of crinoline petticoats among ladies; and Charles Darwin's sojourn in Moor Park to seek relief from his chronic ailments and from working too hard on his ‘everlasting species-Book’ as he told Charles Lyell.

May 1858

This chapter details events that occurred in London in the summer of 858. These include the rift between Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, which can be partially attributed to Dickens's much publicized separation from his wife and Thackeray's role in spreading rumours about the former's marriage troubles; and Benjamin Disraeli's political success stemming from his role in guiding the India Bill to completion, his widely acclaimed budget, and his swift management of the bill to clean up the Thames. The chapter also describes the Divorce Act, which was being tested in suits brought before the new Divorce Court during the spring and early summer of 1858. By the end of the year, 244 cases had been heard, and the general opinion was that the new law was a roaring success.

The Aftermath of the Hot Summer

This chapter details events that occurred after the summer of 1858. Among these is the fallout from the petty quarrel between Thackeray and Yates at the Garrick Club. In the fall of 1858, it was announced in the press that Yates would bring a court case against the Garrick. On 17 November, the Morning Post obliged its readers by going over the whole affair, quoting from Yates' offending Town Talk article, from Thackeray's letter to Yates and the latter's reply, from both men's appeals to the committee of the Garrick, and from the committee's demand that Yates apologise to Thackeray. The remainder of the chapter covers Dickens's success and embarrassment, the end of the Robinson divorce case, and the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species.

July–August 1858

This chapter details events that occurred in London between July and August 1858. These include the absurdly magnified rift in the Garrick Club caused by the callow Edmund Yates's casually malicious article on Thackeray. The main event in this saga occurred on 10 July, when the Garrick held a special meeting of its members to decide what to do about Yates. After much ado about not very much during the summer, the chief result was ‘the temporary estrangement of Mr Thackeray and Mr Dickens’. The remainder of the chapter describes Dickens's reading tour; the exploits of Dickens's minor character in A Tale of Two Cities, Mr Stryver; the continued press coverage of the Great Stink; and Disraeli's whitebait dinner.

Epilogue

This chapter first describes the pantomimes presented by London theatres on the events of 1858. Old Father Thames was the main character in several pantomimes, which brought verbal and visual ingenuity to the subject; many whose titles do not mention the state of the Thames aim at least a passing swipe at the top news item of the scorching summer. For instance, Harlequin and the Forty Thieves at the Queen's Theatre made much of the ‘odour of the river’ and the notion that its water is more poisonous than strychnine. But beyond the scope of topical theatrical entertainments lay more far-reaching events which had their origin in the hot summer of 1858. These included the matters consuming criminal and civil courts, especially those relating to the very first examples coming to court under the life-changing new law of divorce, and the cleanup of the Thames over the next decade.

July 1858

This chapter details events that occurred in London in July 1858. These include Charles Darwin's decision to focus on his health and that of his family after the death of his son, 18-month-old Charles Waring Darwin; newspaper coverage of the parliamentary committee formed to inquire into the state of the Thames and to come up with a plan to improve; the passage of Benjamin Disraeli's Thames Bill for the purification of the Thames; and the debates and eventual passage, on 21 July, of the Oaths Bill, which was intended to allow Jews elected to parliament — in particular Lionel de Rothschild — to take their seats without having to swear on the ‘true faith of a Christian’.