For the Serious Darwin Fan Only: Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle is an interesting, but often tedious detail of his journey around the world. With this in mind, I would have to recommend this book to the Darwin enthusiast and to those who are just looking for a deeper grasp of Darwin, the man. It's not for anyone looking for a quick, easy, or particularly exciting or sensationalist read. If that's what you're looking for, I recommend Cyril Aydon's biography.

With this disclaimer, the book really does offer insight into Darwin and why this journey would be such a critical point in his life. Darwin is incredibly observant, and details flora and fauna throughout with sometimes discouraging detail. But this fact just gives us a clue as to what made this man different from all the other preeminent scientists of the day. Why did Darwin fully get evolution while the others didn't? Certainly this incredible power to really see things provided him with evidence that others might have missed.

My favorite parts would have to be Darwin's description of his time in the inside of South America and his interactions with the people living there. His reactions were varied. He often voices disgust at the barbarism of the settlers towards the Indians in the wars that occur there, while simultaneously describing the Indians as savages with terrible habits. Overall, however, he seems impressed with South America from the classical liberal point of view, saying "It is impossible to doubt that the extreme liberalism of these countries, must ultimately lead to good results." It would be interesting to see what Darwin would think of South America today. Throughout the book he adamately denounces the slavery sees with a keen insight, saying of an escaped slave woman who killed herself rather than be reenslaved, "In a Roman matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom: in a poor negress it is mere brutal obstinancy." Darwin was ahead of his time in this respect.

The part of the book covering his time in the Galapagos is surprisingly short, at least in respect to the emphasis Darwin later put on his time in the islands. It's also interesting to consider Darwin's reaction to them (he thought they were ugly and barren) when considering the impact the diversity of species on the islands played in his evidence for evolution.

All in all, the book has really good, insightful things to pick up, but other parts, such as Darwin's lengthy description of the masses of tiny floating sea creatures, I could have done without. Pick it up if you are really looking to put together a really complete picture of Darwin's life, with tedious details included.

A much more interesting and readable book than Darwin's Origin of the Species. This book details his voyages on the Beagle over the span of 5 years and the people he met, the places he visited, and the animals he encountered along the way. I kept an atlas next to me while reading, which greatly enhanced my pleasure and geographic knowledge. A very enjoyable and educational reading experience. ( )

To me, Darwin's most interesting book for its vivid personal narration of first-hand experience. Note that it does not emphasize his visit to the Galapagos Islands as much as later accounts might lead one to expect. ( )

I read this book when we were Chile, following in some of his footsteps. A wonder travelogue, and a great place to enjoy this book! ( )

I didn't even know it was an actual book you could read.
Quite interesting.

Our entire modern history is so recent: Darwin sailed on December 27, 1831 - just 174 years ago. The ship returned to England on October 2, 1836.

It's interesting that a lot of people slag Darwin as some theorist, but he actually went more places and had more adventures in this one voyage than most people will in their entire lives.

Brazil was still, from his account, basically empty, and slavery persisted in Brazilian plantations. Having travelled several days (from Rio de Janeiro as far as I can tell), he arrives at a fine estate

"April 13th, 1832 - This profusion of food showed itself at dinner, where, if the tables did not groan, the guests surely did; for each person is expected to eat of every dish. One day, having, as I thought, nicely calculated so that nothing should go away untasted, to my utter dismay a roast turkey and a pig appeared in all their substantial reality. During the meals, it was the employment of a man to drive out of the room sundry old hounds, and dozens of little black children, which crawled in together, at every opportunity. As long as the idea of slavery could be banished, there was something exceedingly fascinating in this simple and patriarchal style of living; it was such a perfect retirement and independence from the rest of the world."

Darwin has an insight into the future the next day

"April 14th, 1832 - Considering the enormous area of Brazil, the proportion of cultivated ground can scarcely be considered as anything, compared to that which is left in the state of nature: at some future age, how vast a population it will support!"

In 1830, the world population was approximately 1 billion (audubon.org).

It is also in this period that John James Audubon is doing his great work The Birds of America. In 1833 The Audubon family returns to New York while Audubon and his son John travel to Labrador. (from John James Audubon Chronology) ( )