'This is the essay every essayist would like to have written... he teases, returns again, holds back punchlines and concludes dense paragraphs with intense little summary bombs... The core of the book, the chemical conversion of coincidence to idea, is the proposition that Darwin and Lincoln both entered a world in which people understood themselves vertically - God above, Hell below... outstanding essay' Andrew Marr, Daily Telegraph. 'Adam Gopnik is a great essayist, with a precise, fastidious, if occasionally mannered style... His insights are good and the book is informed by the author's profound liberalism' Jason Cowley, New Statesman.

Adam Gopnik is the author of Paris to the Moon and Through the Children's Gate and is a contributor to The New Yorker. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Introduction: Angels and Ages. Lincoln's Mind. Darwin's Eye. Lincoln in History. Darwin in Time. Ages and Angels. A Bibliographic Note.