Hooray! You have added the first book to your bookshelf. Check it out now!
[−]
  • Search Digit-count Valid ISBN Invalid ISBN Valid Barcode Invalid Barcode
Blog this item

The Origin of Species

By Charles Darwin

(59)

| Hardcover | 9780517123201

Like The Origin of Species?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Sign up for free

Book Description

It's hard to talk about The Origin of Species without making statements that seem overwrought and fulsome. But it's true: this is indeed one of the most important and influential books ever written, and it is one of the very few groundbreaking works of science that is truly readable.

To a Continue

It's hard to talk about The Origin of Species without making statements that seem overwrought and fulsome. But it's true: this is indeed one of the most important and influential books ever written, and it is one of the very few groundbreaking works of science that is truly readable.

To a certain extent it suffers from the Hamlet problem--it's full of clichés! Or what are now clichés, but which Darwin was the first to pen. Natural selection, variation, the struggle for existence, survival of the fittest: it's all in here.

Darwin's friend and "bulldog" T. H. Huxley said upon reading the Origin, "How extremely stupid of me not to have thought of that." Alfred Russel Wallace had thought of the same theory of evolution Darwin did, but it was Darwin who gathered the mass of supporting evidence--on domestic animals and plants, on variability, on sexual selection, on dispersal--that swept most scientists before it. It's hardly necessary to mention that the book is still controversial: Darwin's remark in his conclusion that "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history" is surely the pinnacle of British understatement. --Mary Ellen Curtin, Amazon.com

Critics

  • On the Origin of Species

    On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin, abridged and read by Richard Dawkins (6hrs, CSA Word, £18.59) For once I'm not complaining about an audio being abridged. If anyone is qualified to edit Darwin, it has to be the former Oxford Professor for ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

3 Reviews

Login or Sign Up to write a review

  • The Greatest Idea Ever By A Human Mind

    This is a book probably very often dismissed as being too intellectual or scientific for mere mortals to understand. Yet the reality is not so; Origin is accessible and remarkably easy reading--indeed there is no other major scientific work as accessible to the lay reader, and in fact, there ... (continue)

    This is a book probably very often dismissed as being too intellectual or scientific for mere mortals to understand. Yet the reality is not so; Origin is accessible and remarkably easy reading--indeed there is no other major scientific work as accessible to the lay reader, and in fact, there is no other scientific work as major as this.

    The controversy surrounding this book and its implications for humanity's understanding of life on Earth is precisely because no other science publication has had a more profoundly ground-shaking effect on human complacency and ignorance.

    Darwin lays out the most compelling argument for the origin of the diversity of life on our home planet that has ever been publicly recorded. It is a delight to read, and even to those familiar with the principles of Darwinian evolution, there is much here to astonish and enlighten.

    Apart from one of the most compellingly composed arguments for the evolution of species, this is also a work of literature. Darwin was a master of English prose, and quite capable of soaring to poetic heights when conveying his enthusiastic insights to Nature: the most beautiful, horrific, and fascinating puzzle to face humanity ever.

    Religion is perforce taken on during the course of events, and the singular target of Darwin turns out the be the idea of specific and special Creation (and, necessarily therefore, the immutability of species) that held sway among many educated people of his day. Darwin shows the failings of this idea over and over again, using water-tight arguments, breathtaking insights, and illuminating imagery. A particular highlight is his exploration and explanation of the geographical distribution of varieties and species, which he shows to be entirely and profoundly incompatible with the idea of special Creation.

    It is clear, by the illuminating guide of Darwin, that species evolve and continue to do so and have always done so. Objections that were raised in his day, like the testimony of the fossil record or the complexity of the eye, were also dashed to pieces by the arguments laid out in Origin. What is truly astonishing is that arguments against the mutability of species that were thoroughly defeated by Darwin himself in his book, are still being used today, as if they still had any respectable force. The intransigent and low character of these Bible-waving Nature illiterates of today is perfectly highlighted while reading Origin which was published over a century ago.

    Note: always try to read the first edition of this work. The later editions, especially the sixth, included concessions to his main argument to religious pressures brought to bear on it. Darwin famously introduced the word "God" to the end of his book, but the first edition certainly reads better without it, and contains the more unabashed, pristine, and muscular version of his argument.

    Is this helpful?

    Ramnagel said on Nov 21, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • A perfect book for the one who wants to know about the origin of the species.

    A perfect book for the one who wants to know about the origin of the species. Perfect understanding of origination of the species on the Planet Earth is explained by Charles Darwin. It also has a tremendous power to affect your mind and you might feel that there is nothing like god etc... Overall ve ... (continue)

    A perfect book for the one who wants to know about the origin of the species. Perfect understanding of origination of the species on the Planet Earth is explained by Charles Darwin. It also has a tremendous power to affect your mind and you might feel that there is nothing like god etc... Overall very nice book.

    Is this helpful?

    Nishit Patel said on Jul 7, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

Improve data of this book

Prices Change currency & sellers

ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9780517123201 Hardcover $7.99 -- The Book Depository
Other editions →
+ 2 copies tradable: →
Added to Shelf Added to Wish List

Inline Translation Mode

Left click to navigate, right click to translate.

inline translation guide

or close

Inline translation is not ready for this page yet.

Inline translation mode.

Share this page with your friends.

The viewport has not loaded.