Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface xi
4. Acknowledgments xv
5. Introduction 1
6. Part I: The 1870s and 1880s
7. 1. Evolutionary Anthropology and Sexual Selection in William Dean Howells's Their Wedding Journey 33
8. 2. Courting Design: Chance, Choice, and Sexual Difference in Howells's Courtship Novels of the 1870s 58
9. 3. Darwinian Problems in A Modern Instance: Heredity, Primitive Marriage, and Male Sexual Aggression 83
10. 4. Henry James and The Descent of Man: "The Loves of the Quadrupeds" in "The Madonna of the Future" and Roderick Hudson 107
11. 5. Psychological Darwinism in The Portrait of a Lady 132
12. 6. Darwin and "The Natural History of Doctresses": The Sex War Between Howells, Phelps, Jewett, and James 155
13. Part II: The 1890s
14. 7. Kate Chopin's Quarrel with Darwin before The Awakening 197
15. 8. The Teeth of Desire: The Awakening and The Descent of Man 214
16. 9. The Damnation of Theron Ware: His Failure in "The Work of Selection" 230
17. 10. Sources of Power in The Market-Place: Sexual Vigor, Nerve Force, and the Concealment of Emotions 261
18. Part III: 1900-1926
19. 11. Race and Sexual Selection in Charles W. Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars 289
20. 12. Edith Wharton, from "The Descent of Man" to The Reef 314
21. 13. Sexual Selection in The Sun Also Rises 341
22. Appendix: Darwin in American Literary History since 1950 361
23. Notes 369
24. Works Cited 405
25. Index 421