The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals - Softcover

Darwin, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006387349 ISBN 13: 9780006387343

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2009

Synopsis

The definitive edition of Darwin’s classic – a brilliantly entertaining and accessible exploration of human and animal behaviour, reissued to mark the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.

Why do we bite people we feel affection towards? Why do dogs wag their tails? Or cats purr? Why do we get embarrassed, and why does embarrassment make us blush? These and many other questions about the emotional life of man and animals are answered in this remarkable book.

Expression is the only book in which Darwin sketches out his revolutionary ideas about human behaviour in detail: he discusses childhood learning, insanity, painting and sculpture, animal behaviour and the differences in facial expression of the world’s peoples.

About this title

Review:

‘This is Darwin’s most readable and human book, full of enchanting observations, provocative theories and remarkable photographs. This splendid new edition of Expression will introduce a new generation of readers to Darwin’s masterpiece, undiminished and intensely relevant even 125 years after publication.’
Oliver Sacks, author of The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat

‘The Expression of the Emotions predates Freud, and it will still be illuminating human psychology long after Freud’s discrediting is complete.’
Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion

‘The appearance of this new edition of Darwin’s extraordinary book is a major event in the human sciences. Here Darwin reminds us of his astonishing gifts of observation and explanation, offering insights that are delightful and fresh over a century later. Paul Ekman’s reconstruction of this edition is an act of great scholarship. Everyone interested in emotion – and who isn’t? – should be grateful to Ekman for this book.’
Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct

From the Publisher:

some excerpts from the British reviews
‘The definitive work on the subject... a literary gem and a seminal scientific discourse.’ MICHAEL WHITE, Mail on Sunday

‘Darwin’s most engaging study, displaying all his redoubtable talents for uncovering hidden detail...brought smiles of delight to my face.’ ROY PORTER, The Times

‘Why do we shrug? Why do dogs wag their tails? Why do we scowl when angry and pout when sad rather than the other way around? What is the difference between guilt and shame? This would be an extraordinary book even it had only answered these and scores of similar questions about the emotions in 1872. But Expression also proved that the human mind, not just the body, is a product of evolution. It showed, during the heyday of scientific racism, that the races of mankind are fundamentally similar; anticipating virtually every twentieth-century behavioural science, from child development and psychopathology to ethnography, ethology, cognitive science, and europhysiology. It was the first scientific work to rely on photography. Expression is a captivating book...Darwin enriched his arguments with hundreds of insightful observations, many with the pathos and humour of great literature, as when he describes the terror of a man being led to his execution or the comical dejection of his dog as soon as it sensed that a walk might end...This edition has the feel not of a lovingly restored museum piece but of a recent seminal work that needed only minor updating. It is as fresh and provocative today as it was 125 years ago.’ STEVEN PINKER Science

‘A masterpiece’ Evening Standard

‘Darwin’s forgotten masterwork provides a combination of the voyeurism of a Desmond Morris book and the rigour of a Richard Dawkins tract.’ KENAN MALIK, Independent on Sunday

‘Excellent ...both scholarly and lively.’ LAURENCE HURST, New Scientist

‘Highly original...a treasure trove of a third edition, this is scholarship at its best.’ SIMON BARON-COHEN, Nature

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0006387349
• ISBN 13: 9780006387343
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512
• Editor: Ekman Paul