(posted on my blog: davenichols.net)

Having found that I'm hopelessly addicted to popular science books, especially those dealing with evolution, natural selection, and other wonders of biology, I promised myself that I'd pick up this foundational classic at some point. So much of what I had known previously about Origin was from reading the works of Dawkins, Quammen, and others, and I felt it was vitally important to take up Darwin's masterpiece and see for myself what he had to say. It is quite safe to say it was an excellent decision, and Origin stands up just as well in 2009 as it did when it was published 150 years ago.

Darwin's enthusiasm for the natural world comes through strongly on every page. I can easily imagine him sitting in his workshop, encouraging me, the reader, to see what he sees, to notice the details he explains with such passion. And he does not skip the scientific data. Darwin's arguments are strongly based on observation, experimentation, and an amazing convergence of multiple disciplines. Throughout the book, the reader feels he might be sitting in a room while Darwin leads a fascinating exhibition with the help of eminent biologists, zoologists, geologists, anthropologists, naturalists, and others.

I especially loved reading Darwin's original words dealing with biogeography and the migration of life. It is stunning just how prescient he was in so many things which he admits freely are greatly educated guesses. Sure, there are places where his thoughts were later shown incomplete or erroneous, but the vast bulk of his thoughts showed keen insight that often took many decades of research to prove correct. Darwin was quite literally one of the very few fundamental thinkers to ever risk putting his thoughts into writing, and his work is even more impressive given how little was known about genetics at the time by anyone but the largely-unknown Gregor Mendel.

While the book is quite dense at times, it is well worth the reader's effort to push through and experience this book's amazing insights. Darwin's enthusiasm is infective, and I think any reader of science who is interested in reading the classics should take the time to read and enjoy this groundbreaking and fascinating work. Five big stars. ( )

I recommend reading of this book because of the importance of it. When Charles Darwin published this in 1859 it rocked the English speaking world. Up to that point the religious idea of creation was unquestionably accepted. Religion held a lot of power over people and their lives. Then this book came out, and it put into question all that the English world held dear about God and creation. I don't know if any piece of literature has had such a profound affect on society and its beliefs. When I read it, I thought that it might be boring because of the scope of the work, but it's actually not boring because it's simply and plainly written. Remember the whole theory of evolution originated from this one work. ( )

Facsimile of first edition, with "An Historical Sketch" and "Glossary" from sixth edition. ( )

Excellent book. Christopher Hitchens is amazing. ( )

Given my previous experience in reading Victorian-era literature (Dickens, Hardy, etc), I had thought that a book of scientific discussion would be even more weighty and inaccessible. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Darwin actually has a rather light touch to his writings, and even the rather complex and difficult ideas that he covers are easily digested. Ironically, the editor's introduction (written by Burrow in 1968) is much denser in his language.

The world, or at least our understanding of it, was very different 150 years, and many great minds were working towards finding the answers to the many questions that surrounded them. Darwin wrote this book after many years of observing the world, and also discussing and learning the observations of many of his contemporaries.

Despite the books 'changed the world' status - much of what Darwin writes was not new in 1859, although all of the ideas about evolution and variation had probably never been collected into as comprehensive a theory.

One thing that I had to keep reminding myself was that the book was written 150 years, and that much more scientific investigation in to the subject has been conducted which has shaped the Theory of Evolution into its current form. This was most prevalent whenever Darwin discussed the cause and effect of variation (and why a variation might continue through multiple generations) - although it is understandable that this should be an unknown for Darwin since the science of genetics was to take a few decades to come about, and then the actual mechanism (DNA) wouldn't be understood until well over a century after he wrote his book.

The Origin of Species is an excellent start for people interested in biology and searching for answers as to why life on the planet is the way it is. But it does need to be followed up with reading on the vast amount of work that has taken place over the intervening 150 years. ( )

The first thing that struck me about Darwin was how readable he is. The second thing, over the course of my reading, was how carefully he structures the book-length argument he presents.Darwin says in his introduction that he early suspected that studying variation in domesticated animals would give him the clue to “that mystery of mysteries,” the origin of species. It seems likely, though, that he reached his conclusions by looking at variations in nature, and especially in the controlled conditions of species isolation provided by islands, in his time on the Beagle in 1831-36—and that he returned to man-made selection as a way of substantiating his theories and, more important, a safe place to start his argument. Everyone can observe what the plant or animal breeder can do in the way of passing on and enhancing traits that show up in his stock. Of course he can’t create variations, but he can select for them. The cause of the occurrence of variations Darwin could not be expected to guess, since no one at the time knew about DNA or how small accidents in its replication show up as mutations. Darwin speculates, here and in later chapters, that changes in external conditions act beforehand on the reproductive systems of parents to cause variations in offspring. He also, if I read him correctly, leaves open the possibility of the inheritance of acquired characteristics (“who can say that . . . the thicker fur of an animal from far northwards, would not in some cases be inherited for at least some few generations?”).
When he moves from “Variation Under Domestication” to “Variation Under Nature,” he has still to tackle the question whether variations, selected by man or by nature, amount to the coming about of new species. He muddies the waters (naturalists can’t always agree on whether two forms are varieties or distinct species) before announcing his own opinion that “a well-marked variety may be justly called an incipient species” and that there exists a continuum of small variations, varieties, sub-species, and species. He offers as confirmation the fact that larger genera have not only more species but also more very common species and more varieties than smaller genera even though “if we look at each species as a special act of creation there is no apparent reason why more varieties should occur in a group having many species, than in one having few.”
The third chapter applies the Malthusian argument to “the whole animal and vegetable kingdom”: every species, allowed to reproduce without check, would cover the earth in a few thousand generations. They do not because of the “The Struggle for Existence,” which also ensures that any favorable variation in any individual tends to preserve that individual and its offspring, a principle Darwin calls, “to mark its relation to man’s power of selection,” natural selection.
In his chapter on “Natural Selection,” Darwin is careful to make clear what it can and cannot do: it can “modify the structure of the young in relation to the parent” and vice versa, it can “adapt the structure of each individual for the benefit of the community,” but it cannot “modify the structure of one species, without giving it any advantage, for the good of another species.” Sexual selection works not by “death to the unsuccessful competitor, but few or no offspring.” Darwin points out that since intercrosses retard natural selection, isolation can allow for new varieties to be slowly improved, but he also believes that modification and new varieties will occur faster where there is a large area rather than, for example, an island. Natural selection operates by modifications that work well and by the extinction of those that do not. Gradually the small differences between varieties “become augmented into the greater difference between species.” Darwin introduces a diagram at this point to show variations within a species can ultimately grow into distinctly different species and form a new genus. He not only uses the schematic tree diagram, but he employs the tree metaphor at the chapter’s end to express the idea of natural selection operating through geologic time.
Although “our ignorance of the laws of variation is profound,” Darwin devotes a chapter to them, pointing to the way natural selection works 1) to encourage the strengthening and enlargement of parts that are used and the diminishment and disappearance of those that are not, 2) to select those variations best adapted to their climates, and 3) to work toward correlation of the parts of organisms that are adapting. “Species very rarely endure for more than one geological period” is a pronouncement he throws out during this chapter. Sexual selection is less drastic than natural selection—you don’t necessarily die; you just don’t find a mate. The chapter ends with an interesting case of reversion: lots of horses and mules show, at least when young, zebra-like stripes. Darwin says if you believe in independent creation of species, you have to see such species senselessly imitating each other. “To admit this view is . . . to reject a real for an unreal, or at least for an unknown, cause. It makes the works of God a mere mockery and deception.”
In chapter 6, Darwin brings up difficulties and objections to his theory, and in this and the two following chapters he responds to these difficulties. The first problem is that of transitions, and there are several parts to it: how “is it possible that an animal having, for instance, the structure and habits of a bat, could have been formed by the modification of some animal with wholly different habits?” “Why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms?” And finally, “can we believe that natural selection could produce . . . organs of trifling importance, such as the tail of the giraffe . . . and . . . organs of such wonderful structure, as the eye?” Darwin points to flying squirrels and the flying lemur as possible way stations on the road from quadruped to bat. But he points out that we do not have lots of transitional forms because they, along with the parent forms, “will generally have been exterminated by the very process of formation and perfection of the new form.” We do not find evidence of them in the geological record because it is very incomplete, a topic that he takes up in chapter 9. As to trifling versus wonderful organs, Darwin points out that we can’t know the giraffe’s fly-swatter tail doesn’t give it a competitive advantage n an environment of many disease-carrying and harassing insects, and that we are not justified in supposing “that any organ could not possibly have been produced by successive transitional gradations.”
Chapter 7 looks at the difficulty of instinct, but illustrates that complicated instincts might be selected, using as examples the fairly sloppy hives of humble-bees, the mathematically perfect hives of hive bees (in terms of greatest storage for least possible use of wax and wall space) and a group of Mexican bees with intermediate hive-making efficiency.
In “Hybridism,” (chapter 8) Darwin concludes that the received view that crossed species (as opposed to crossed varieties) have infertile offspring so that species will not become confused oversimplifies the actual facts about crossings and infertility, so that “the facts . . . do not seem to me to be opposed to, but even rather to support the view, that there is no fundamental distinction between species and varieties.”
Chapter 9 is “On the Imperfections of the Geologic Record,” and here Darwin struggles with the absence of transitional forms in the geologic record, the seemingly sudden appearance of groups of species within single strata, and the paleontologists and geologists who are unanimously lined up against the mutability of species (though he thinks Lyell might be changing his mind). Darwin has nothing but “elevation” and “subsidence” to explain geologic movement, and he knows how inadequate his picture of the earth over geologic time must be.
Then, in the next three chapters, “On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings” and “Geographical Distribution” I and II, Darwin comes back from his diffidence on the imperfection of the geologic record to underline that everything else points toward his theory. The slow appearance of new species, differing rates of change in species of different classes, and the fact that extinct species never recur, all support natural selection. Extinction is one of its key elements, because all forms are in competition. Size is not an advantage, rarity precedes extinction, and competition is most severe among forms most like each other. The forms of marine life—not identical species but families—change simultaneously throughout the world, and this is how we know we’re in the Cretaceous, for instance. More ancient forms tend to connect with characteristics widely separated in present forms, and all of these observations agree with a theory of descent with modification.
In geographical distribution, natural barriers produce species differences on either side of mountain ranges and different shores of continents. At the same time, various methods of dispersal ensure that species are similar on islands and the continents they are close to. Glacial dispersion explains why similar plants and animals to those we see in the north are left on mountaintops farther south. Oceanic islands sometimes lack a whole class of animals while other classes take its place—reptiles in the Galapagos or wingless birds in New Zealand replacing mammals, for instance.
In the penultimate chapter, “Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs,” Darwin argues that the classification of animals and plants isn’t arbitrary, but that the “Natural System” taxonomists have tried to find is itself a plan of relation by a descent rather than a divine plan of creation or a scheme of like characteristics such as appearance or life habits. Homologous parts and organs—that is, the way “members of the same class resemble each other in the general plan of their organization” to show “unity of type” is, according to Professor Flower, “powerfully suggestive of true relationship, of inheritance from a common ancestor.” Darwin could not agree more. The extraordinary likeness among embryos of mammals, birds, and lizards may show the “condition of the progenitor of the whole group.” Rudimentary organs and limbs seem to show evidence of modification through disuse.
In his last chapter, Darwin recapitulates his arguments, speculates about why they might have been resisted by naturalists and geologists, and writes “I see no good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of any one.” ( )

To begin with, a note on the edition. This Barnes & Noble Classics series version is based on the first edition of The Origin of Species, which is actually nice for a couple of reasons. First, it allows the reader to experience the book as it originally appeared. This is not only interesting historically, but a nearly unmitigated virtue because of the second reason: The core content of the book remained essentially the same throughout the later revisions Darwin made in his lifetime, but such changes as he did make were for the most part unnecessary or even (in retrospect) unfortunate---mainly minor concessions to skeptics (religious and otherwise) and to the Lamarckian theory of evolution (as opposed to natural selection as the basic mechanism driving evolutionary change).

That said, there are several things to say about the book itself. First, it is extremely readable. Modern audiences (especially those educated in the American government schools, which almost certainly failed to introduce them to this material) might be intimidated by the prospect of tackling a somewhat technical scientific volume of this size written a century and a half ago. Those who attempt it, however, will be pleasantly surprised to find that Darwin's presentation is extremely clear and intelligible, at times even beautiful. This admirable writing style is in large part due to his scientific method, which leads me to the book's next great virtue.

Darwin's approach is primarily inductive---that is, he was not some armchair philosopher abstractly theorizing off in an ivory tower somewhere, as one might suspect from the photograph of him as a bearded old man with which we are usually presented. In other words, evolution is not "just a theory," precisely because Darwin was not just a theorist. Rather, Darwin gathered massive amounts of evidence on his Beagle voyage, and continued to accumulate ever more (with the help of his scientific colleagues in various related disciplines) for decades before he felt ready to publish his theory (and he still felt rushed into it). (Indeed, for anyone interested in the philosophy of science, or in epistemology in general, On the Origin of Species should be the textbook case of scientific induction.) Darwin then presents all of this evidence to us piece by piece, building up his case from the ground, as it were, and in effect recreating his own line of thinking for his reader making it incredibly easy to follow his case.

Which brings us to the third point: What kinds of evidence does Darwin draw on? Intriguingly, Darwin did not begin his career as a biologist aiming to solve the species question. He boarded the Beagle as a brilliant amateur natural scientist generally with an inclination toward geology. Perhaps this is why he was able to draw so widely on various fields in making his case for evolution when that question did become his main interest. From Lyell's theories and his own geological observations, Darwin concluded that the period of time available actually allowed for a very (previously unthinkably) slow process of evolution. From this geological perspective, he naturally was able to look at various pieces of evidence more directly bearing on the species question, such as the fossil record and (more importantly) the geographical distribution of species. After the Beagle voyage, he was able to conduct experiments in many other areas (and correspond with colleagues about the results of their experiments), including artificial selection (Darwin's pigeons being the most famous example of this) which became important as an analogy for the process of natural selection; the means of the geographical distribution and isolation of species (including seeing whether seeds can germinate after extended periods of submersion in salt water or passing through the digestive tracts of birds); and even the sex lives of barnacles. All of these experiments are described at some length in The Origin of Species.

But Darwin, ever the scientist, was in fact cautious not to overstep the limits of what he could prove. The Origin of Species contains an excellent chapter anticipating and answering possible objections to his theory, and acknowledging its shortcomings. For instance, Darwin acknowledges that the fossil record at the time did not tend to show gradual progression from one species to another, and offers an explanation as to why the fossil record might be so incomplete. He also acknowledges that while he found the evidence for evolution by means of natural selection to be overwhelming, he did not know the actual physical, biological mechanism by which this takes place (as genes had not been discovered and the discipline of genetics created at that time), but he does briefly mention a hypothesis that was actually sort of on the right track. In fact, in all of these weak areas, subsequent history has borne Darwin and his theory out remarkably well.

And finally, in addition to being a masterpiece of scientific thought, The Origin of Species is also a work of, at times, almost poetic beauty, and deserves praise for its literary merit. After presenting or indicating all the evidence in a specific area throughout each section, Darwin ends each chapter by summing it up in an eloquent statement naming the general principle to be derived from this vast array of specific evidence, often employing an apt and evocative metaphor. The most famous of these passages is of course the one with which he concludes the book: "Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

You cannot legitimately consider yourself an educated person if you haven't read this wonderful book, and yet a shockingly small percentage of Americans (including even those who claim to believe in evolution) have read it. But you will find that to do so is not a chore, but one of life's great pleasures. ( )

Elegantly brilliant: I had read The Voyage of the Beagle first. It is easy to see how Darwin's theory of evolution was growing as he traveled and saw how plants and animals adapted to different environments. Then he invented a theory to explain what he had observed.
This book is a 300 page definition of the theory of natural selection. Darwin goes through a detailed explanation of how evolution must have occured. He is very methodically, very detailed. When he doesn't understand something, he says he doesn't. He is humble in his presentation, giving credit to other scientists. I was amazed at how many experiments he performed himself, growing generations of plants and insects, watching how they developed and changed.
There is a quote in the book from Darwin's gardener who said, "He's really a sad little man. Sometimes he stands and stares at a flower for hours. I really think he'd be better off if he had something to do."
We are so lucky that Darwin inherited money and could spend his early years traveling and his later years in contemplation and writing.

A beautifully produced example of 'On The Origin of Species'. One for the coffee table ( )

This is a wonderful and very readable book that truly changed the way we look at the world. It sold out on the day it was published in 1859 and created both friends and enemies of the theories discussed still to this day. There have been modifications of Darwin's theory of the origin of species (notably the Mendellian synthesis that incorporated genetics into the theory), but it stands to this day as the foundation of our understanding of the evolution. Surprisingly the only time evolution is mentioned is in the last paragraph of the book.
This is a good book for anyone who once to read a classic text of science. ( )

Quite stunning in its way - but surely in need of an update in the light of genetics, DNA and plate techtonics. Not that the conclusions need to be changed, just that te argument becomes easier. That said, in the absence of knowledge on those points: that's what makes for the stunning. ( )

Due to recent dicoveries on the Galopolas Islands
where Darwin hatched his theory of evolution a new species
has been found making his theory hard to believe.

This discovery is: That there are a rare species of
large pink iguanas ont the island. Consider, what would
the color pink add to an iguana's fitness for survival?
Right nada.

Also, Darwin primary reason for going to the islands
was to escape and find relief for his frequent panic attacks
David Stein

Finally read after decades of good intentions. For a recondite classic it is full of surprises, mostly pleasant; its supposed impenetrability largely confined to parts we already knew were directed at specialists—I admit to slogging through the section on barnacles, for example. But Origins is highly readable, pleasurable even, almost in the way of an Edmund Wilson essay. Darwin proceeds deliberately through the mountain of evidence he collected over twenty years as he constructs a virtually unassailable intellectual structure. Freely recognizing arguments against natural selection—the central thread of the book—he gives his best arguments based on the knowledge of his day while carefully pointing out its limitations. I was not prepared for how well he anticipated later discoveries—Mendel’s pioneering work in genetics didn’t see publication until the early 20th century yet dovetails almost seamlessly into Origins exposition, as does the Modern Synthesis.
If you’re interested in any of the broad fields of biology-evolution, taxonomy, genetics—The Origin of Species is a must read. If you are a creationist, even in its deceptive guise of intelligent design, you are not intellectually honest if you have not read and honestly come to grips with this book; which gives the lie to the railings of a few misguided Christians and Muslims who seem to think it a product of their devil. Yet, so thoughtful and measured a book makes it clear any devils are in the eye of the beholder ( )

Can't say I recommend it, but it satisfied my historical curiosity to hear an abridged version of the original. ( )

The best science book ever written. It is amazingly easy reading - very compelling and still fascinating. Darwin put forth a powerful case even without knowing about genes etc. Before you listen to the knuckleheads out there who want to denigrate Darwin and evolution, read this book first (and maybe follow with something a bit more modern, such as Carl Zimmer: Evolution - the triumph of an idea). ( )

Scientist Charles Darwin once asserted that "a scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections -- a mere heart of stone." Indeed, his objective take on evolution asserted in The Origin of Species shook the foundations of traditional religion to its core.

The famous text turns out to be eminently readable, and this edition has a very good introduction by Gillian Beer ( )

Charles Darwin was born at Shrewsbury, England in 1809, the son of a doctor, and grandson of Erasmus Darwin, the author of "The Botanic Garden". ( )

One of the most important scientific monographs in history. 'There is grandeur in this view of life.'

The significance of this book is hard to argue. That species do evolve based on the principle of natural selection is irrefutable. That we can predict or even define how this has affected biology worldwide is harder to prove. Still, a landmark science text and not difficult to read if you have an interest in natural science. ( )

AS a biologist, its a must on any list :) ( )

Not what I was expecting at all.

Here we have a very readable if thorough going explanation of his theory of descent with modification through variation and natural selection. I have seen comments such as dry and stodgy but did not find this to be the case to any great extent.

I must confess to skimming a total of about three pages out of nearly five hundred. I did this because I had already got the point and he was listing in minute detail the implications of this or that on his famous "tree of life diagram" a to a' etc. etc.

Apart from the exposition of such a simple theory the two main things I enjoyed most about the book were as follows;

Firstly, just how much evidence in favour of evolution he did not have an inkling about. He bases his theory on how it explains the geographical distribution of life on the earth, variation, fertility, vestigial organs, eyes on cave dwellers, webbed feet on mountain ducks etc. It is therefore surprising just how much he got right and how little has since been shown to be wrong. Remember he had no idea of DNA or the molecular side of reproduction at all and yet he predicts a good deal of it.

Secondly, his forays into experiment. Ranging from the counting of plant species in cleared ground, measuring and comparison of greyhound and bulldog puppies and adult dogs, to the immersal of seeds in sea-water and so on.

The book is written for the lay audience and should be accessible, with a little patience, to most.

Despite what many Creationists have told me there is nothing I could find about the origin of life, support for the Nazi's, reasons in favour of the Holocaust or the futility of existence at all. ( )

The journey of Charles Darwin on the H.M.S. Beagle and his reports, discoveries and observations relating to natural science and evolution. Fairly interesting for a book on science even though it is rather dated. The stir it caused in the mid 1800s no longer carries the same groundbreaking impact. ( )

An early edition of one of the seminal works of science, one which has radically and inalterably changed the world-view of man. It is hard to imagine other scientific publications which have had more influence - perhaps Isaac Newton's Principia. That said, Darwin is not an easy read, although he certainly ranges further afield and holds more interest than the authors of many current-day scientific publications. He was a well-rounded man of science, who understood quite well the hornet's nest he would be stirring up. ( )

intense (slow going)