Preludio al Saggio del 1859, questo libretto inizia a delineare la sua teoria sulla quale ancora oggi si dibatte.

Pensavo che l'avrei trovato più noioso, invece è molto appassionante.

Sarebbe indegno del Creatore di infiniti Universi aver fatto con atti singoli del Suo volere le miriadi di striscianti parassiti e vermi che dai primi albori della vita hanno dilagato sulla terra nelle profondità del mare. ( )

8472915603

Hardcover

Amazingly readable. Loved his writing, his breadth of knowledge, his generosity, his modesty. ( )

I think I actually bought this book for my son....but I'm not sure. It's a really good version of "On the Origin of Species" and has a lot of supplementary correspondence relating to it....including excepts from Charles Darwin's autobiography. That would be my reasoning if I bought it for myself. But if for my son then the logic would have been that he is engaged in university studies in biology and Darwin's book is THE classic of biological science ...yet most of the undergraduates that I knew had not read the Origen of Species when they graduated. (In fact of all the students that I knew personally, none had read it). And, I suspect that very few, if any, of our lecturers had read it. I did read it myself...many years after graduation and found it rather remarkable. Relatively easy to read (even if the language was slightly archaic) and persuasive, and, actually quite engaging. It also gives one boasting rights or, at least, a quiet feeling of satisfaction that you have at least read the great classic...when most others probably have not. But, apart from that there were bits of the story that have remained with me for probably 50 years: his work with pigeons and his correspondence with dog breeders ...in fact, his remarkable correspondence with all sorts of people around the world....and his travels on the Beagle.
I'll try to get my son to read it now that he is on summer break from University...but suspect it will be consigned to the pile of books recommended to him by me but now gathering dust.
I'm not going to try and review Darwin's book in detail. There are far too many others who have done this. But simply to say that it's a really impressive work and has had an incredible impact ...not only in biology but also in other fields such as history where evolutionary thinking has been applied and with the current Covid 19 virus pandemic where the virus keeps evolving. As Daniel Dennett put it..."Darwin's dangerous idea". Down-side: no pictures...I have other versions with pictures...which I like.
Happy to give this five stars and hope my son will read it. ( )