Subversive Seduction: Darwin, Sexual Selection, and the Spanish Novel

Acknowledgments

ac k now l e d g m e n t s This book has been several years in the making and would not have been possible without considerable support from a variety of sources. I would first like to thank Anthony Geist and Nil Santiáñez for their committed direction in the early stages of the project and for their enduring friendship over the years. Each has stood by me and repeatedly given invaluable counsel. Likewise, I am also deeply indebted to Marshall Brown and Gary Handwerk, who have been in my corner since day one. Their encouragement and careful readings have had a tremendous impact. David Barash, too, is to be singled out for helping me see the rich complexity of evolutionary science; I still cherish the warm camaraderie we shared talking about life and Darwin so many moons ago. Others along the way who have provided strong backing and suggestions include Francisco Caudet, Edward Baker, and Thomas Glick. I also wish to thank those from my Italian studies , including Giuseppe Leporace and Remo Ceserani. Though their influence on the project is hard to quantify, they nonetheless played a formative role in my broader academic trajectory. By contrast, the involvement of Jerry Hoeg and Kevin Larsen can be easily measured. They took an early interest in my work and were instrumental in my two initial publications to explore the subject that would later become this book. By means of acknowledgment, these were “The Moral Sense of Suitors and Selectors in Jacinto Octavio Picón,” Ometeca 12 (2008): 137–51, and “Darwin, Sexual Selection, and the Spanish Novel in the Late Nineteenth Century,” from Interdisciplinary Essays on Darwinism in Hispanic Literature and Film: The Intersection of Science and the Humanities, ed. Jerry Hoeg and Kevin Larsen (New York: Mellen, 2009), 77–99. Acknowledgments viii Very special words of personal gratitude go, as well, to Dale Pratt and Valerie Hegstrom, who both mean so much to me. Similarly, gifted mentors are rare, and since my undergraduate years at Brown University, I have been fortunate to have grown as a scholar under the warm tutelage of Geoffrey Ribbans, who first introduced me to nineteenth -century Spanish literature and has followed my progress ever since. And, for Arnold Weinstein, there are no words to express what his vision of life and literature has done for me. He lit a spark, channeled my comparative instincts, and has been an anchor for me up to the present. We all need someone to trust along our chosen path, and Arnold has been that person for me. Jacqueline Ettinger, too, has been a most incredible ally, and when it comes to this project, I owe her everything for believing in me from the very beginning. Moreover, I have wonderful colleagues now at Kenyon College and can say that I feel at home among them. Funding from Kenyon, including a Summer Stipend, has been crucial, and the Modern Language Initiative and the University of Washington Press have together made possible the publication of my study, which I am grateful to have included in the University of Washington Press’s McLellan Endowed Series. I also want to thank Tim Roberts, for his work as Managing Editor; Jane Lichty, for her excellent copyediting; and those on the design team, including Ashley Saleeba and Sarah Cohen, for making me part of the cover collaboration. Finally, I would like to express my deep love for my family and to close by dedicating the book to Sarah, Sadie, June, and my mom. Subversive Seduction ...