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On the Origin of Species (1859)

by Charles Darwin

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
14,251121394 (4.1)2 / 395
Science. Nonfiction. Biology. On December 27, 1831, the young naturalist Charles Darwin left Plymouth Harbor aboard the HMS Beagle. For the next five years, he conducted research on plants and animals from around the globe, amassing a body of evidence that would culminate in one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind-the theory of evolution. Darwin presented his stunning insights in a landmark book that forever altered the way human beings view themselves and the world they live in. In The Origin of Species, Darwin convincingly demonstrates the fact of evolution: that existing animals and plants cannot have appeared separately but must have slowly transformed from ancestral creatures. Most important, the book fully explains the mechanism that effects such a transformation: natural selection, the idea that made evolution scientifically intelligible for the first time. One of the few revolutionary works of science that is readily accessible to the nonscientist, The Origin of Species not only launched the science of modern biology but has also influenced virtually all subsequent literary, philosophical, and religious thinking.… (more)
  1. 90
    The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins (IslandDave)
  2. 30
    The Structure of Evolutionary Theory by Stephen Jay Gould (Anneli)
  3. 30
    The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll (Othemts)
  4. 30
    Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins by Ian Tattersall (John_Vaughan)
  5. 30
    Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer (yapete)
  6. 30
    The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal by Jared M. Diamond (WiJiWiJi, WiJiWiJi)
  7. 20
    Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated by Steve Jones (Noisy)
    Noisy: Things have moved on somewhat in the last one hundred and fifty years. These two books bear a re-read ahead of the bicentenary of Darwin's birth in 2009.
  8. 20
    Evolution by Douglas J. Futuyma (davidsietsma)
  9. 31
    Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade (ColumbusLee)
  10. 20
    Darwin and the Beagle by Alan Moorehead (John_Vaughan)
  11. 42
    The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (themulhern)
    themulhern: The books are similar in structure and not nearly as dry as most other science or history.
  12. 10
    Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin (Michael.Rimmer)
  13. 47
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (2below)
    2below: Carroll was one of many Victorian authors influenced by Darwin's work. Alice is rife with evolutionary thinking--a crazy world inhabited almost entirely by sentient animals, with a heavy focus on eating and being eaten.
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» See also 395 mentions

English (104)  Spanish (4)  Italian (2)  Catalan (2)  Portuguese (1)  French (1)  German (1)  Swedish (1)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  Norwegian (1)  Finnish (1)  All languages (119)
Showing 1-5 of 104 (next | show all)
Meticulously evidenced, carefully argued, and both cautious and revelatory, and so a little bit boring as a read. ( )
  sfj2 | Mar 7, 2024 |
This book is a published version of Ben Fry's website, On the Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Traces (https://benfry.com/traces/), a creative take on Morse Peckham's Variorum of Darwin's Origin of Species, published in 1959 (online version here: http://darwin-online.org.uk/Variorum/index.html).

From Ben Fry's website: "We often think of scientific ideas, such as Darwin's theory of evolution, as fixed notions that are accepted as finished. In fact, Darwin's On the Origin of Species evolved over the course of several editions he wrote, edited, and updated during his lifetime. The first English edition was approximately 150,000 words and the sixth is a much larger 190,000 words. In the changes are refinements and shifts in ideas — whether increasing the weight of a statement, adding details, or even a change in the idea itself. The second edition, for instance, adds a notable “by the Creator” to the closing paragraph, giving greater attribution to a higher power. In another example, the phrase “survival of the fittest” — usually considered central to the theory and often attributed to Darwin — instead came from British philosopher Herbert Spencer, and didn't appear until the fifth edition of the text. Using the six editions as a guide, we can see the unfolding and clarification of Darwin's ideas as he sought to further develop his theory during his lifetime. This project is made possible by the hard work of Dr. John van Wyhe, et al. who run The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. The text for each edition was sourced from their careful transcription of Darwin's books. This piece is one of multiple sketches that look at the changes between editions. For instance, the earliest version here simply depicts all six books in parallel."
  darwinsbulldog | Jan 18, 2024 |
I like to read books that laid the foundation for certain lines of study. I am a chemist by education but found it difficult to penetrate his long sentences and long paragraphs of what seemed to me to be rambling narratives. I’m glad biologists got what they needed from this work to develop the evolutionary sciences. Maybe I’ll try to finish this book someday. ( )
  mtreader | Dec 23, 2023 |
Boring and stupid. ( )
  puabi | Nov 22, 2023 |


Amazingly readable. Loved his writing, his breadth of knowledge, his generosity, his modesty. ( )
  steve02476 | Jan 3, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 104 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (99 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Darwin, CharlesAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Appleman, PhilipIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Batista, DoraTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Beer, GillianEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Burrow, J. W.Editorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bynum, WilliamEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Carroll, JosephEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Eliot, Charles WilliamEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ghiselin, Michael T.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Grassé, Pierre-PaulIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hellemans, LudoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Huxley, JulianIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Keynes, RichardIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Landacre, PaulIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Levaillant, FrancoisCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mayr, ErnstIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Peckham, MorseEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Quammen, DavidEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rook, RuudTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Simpson, George GaylordForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wallace, JeffIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Introduction
by David Quammen
On the Origin of Species is a surprising, peculiar work in many ways but among all its peculiarities my favorite is this: Seldom in the history of English prose has such a dangerous, disruptive, consequential book been so modest and affable in tone. That's because its author, Charles Darwin, was himself a modest and affable man—shy in demeanor though confident of his ideas—who meant to persuade, not to declaim or intimidate. You can hear it in his opening sentences:
When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species—that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers.
He sounds lik a gentle uncle, clearing his throat politely, about to share a few curious observations and musings over tea.
Introduction
When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species—that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five years' work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions, which then seemed to me probable: from that period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.
Quotations
"It may be difficult, but we ought to admire the savage instinctive hatred of the queen-bee, which urges her to destroy the young queens, her daughters, as soon as they are born, or to perish herself in the combat; for undoubtedly this is for the good of the community; and maternal love or maternal hatred, though the latter fortunately is most rare, is all the same to the inexorable principles of natural selection."
Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
For the first five editions the title was “On the Origin of Species”, the sixth edition of 1872 changed the title to “The Origin of Species”.
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Science. Nonfiction. Biology. On December 27, 1831, the young naturalist Charles Darwin left Plymouth Harbor aboard the HMS Beagle. For the next five years, he conducted research on plants and animals from around the globe, amassing a body of evidence that would culminate in one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind-the theory of evolution. Darwin presented his stunning insights in a landmark book that forever altered the way human beings view themselves and the world they live in. In The Origin of Species, Darwin convincingly demonstrates the fact of evolution: that existing animals and plants cannot have appeared separately but must have slowly transformed from ancestral creatures. Most important, the book fully explains the mechanism that effects such a transformation: natural selection, the idea that made evolution scientifically intelligible for the first time. One of the few revolutionary works of science that is readily accessible to the nonscientist, The Origin of Species not only launched the science of modern biology but has also influenced virtually all subsequent literary, philosophical, and religious thinking.

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Penguin Australia

An edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia.

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Tantor Media

2 editions of this book were published by Tantor Media.

Editions: 1400102154, 1400108640

 

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