Voyage of the "Beagle" (Economy Editions) - Softcover

Darwin, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486424898 ISBN 13: 9780486424897

Publisher: Dover Publications Inc, 2002

Synopsis

Classic of adventure travel and cornerstone in the development of evolutionary theory recounts Darwin's five-year sojourn in South America, where he made the observations that led to his concept of natural selection, basing many of his conclusions upon his study of the unique creatures of the Galįpagos.

About this title

Review:

Many people who have planned to read The Voyage of the Beagle and been deterred by its length and scientific aspects will find the answer here in a carefully and skillfully abridged edition, cut to half the length, which gives the continuity of text, Darwin's own words, and the observations and episodes that make it memorable as a human document. Here is a classic, the record of an enquiring mind seeking scientific truth. Here is evident the growth of the man. An introductory biography places the importance of this trip in Darwin's life; introductory bits for each chapter provide an analysis of the voyage and its scientific meaning along with the actual text. This work is significant in view of additional material available in the last 35 years, much of it Darwin's own writings, but hitherto unpublished in book form. A bibliography provides not only original sources but additional material for study. --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author:

Charles Darwin was born in England in 1809 and attended the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. When he decided against that vocation, he enrolled at Cambridge where he earned a degree in theology. During an expedition to Africa and South America, Darwin continued his studies in natural science and began writing about his theories of natural selection. His work led to the publication of On the Origin of Species, a book that changed the world.
Charles Darwin: Original Thinking
Each generation of students comes to Darwin's epoch-making works, several of which are the basis of our publishing program in biology and related fields: The Essential Darwin, 2006; The Descent of Man, 2010; The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, 2006; and On the Origin of the Species, 2006.
In the Author's Own Words:
"A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there."
"I feel most deeply that this whole question of Creation is too profound for human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton! Let each man hope and believe what he can."
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."
"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."
"Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system — with all these exalted powers — Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin." — Charles Darwin

About this edition

• Publisher: Dover Publications Inc
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0486424898
• ISBN 13: 9780486424897
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528