Visions of Flux: Rhoda Broughton’s Not Wisely, but Too Well

This chapter explores how Rhoda Broughton’s sensational romance Not Wisely, but Too Well (1867) articulates the challenges posed by evolutionary theory for the mid-Victorian ‘idea of progress’. Through the tumultuous experiences of its protagonist, who embodies a distinctly Darwinian sense of ‘flux’, the novel questions whether progress is inevitable and the extent to which the individual can contribute to it. The chapter examines how, in order to overcome the ubiquitous, unsettling implications of ‘deep time’, the novel posits an embodied attachment to the present moment as an alternative. Yet this proves to offer only temporary respite and, in a parallel with many works of evolutionary discourse (most notably Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species), Not Wisely, but Too Well concludes with a reinstatement of providence—though even this cannot expel a lingering anxiety regarding the individual’s capacity to effect progress.