On the Origin of Species (Facsimile gift edition): Charles Darwin

This is a beautiful hardback facsimile edition of one of the most important books ever written, in which Darwin provided the answer to what had been called the “mystery of mysteries”, the origin of species. This edition is also great value.Darwin shows that “species are not immutable”; that all living creatures are linked by common descent; and that natural selection is the mechanism by which evolutionary change takes place.You do not have to be a scientific specialist to read the “Origin”, but I do feel that you can get more out of it if you have first read a modern introduction to evolution such as Ernst Mayr’s “What Evolution Is” or Jerry Coyne’s “Why Evolution Is True”.There were things that Darwin could not know 150 years ago: he knew nothing of modern genetics or the causes of variation; he mistakenly thought that the Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics played a part in evolution; and later theorists such as Ernst Mayr have added to our understanding of how one species branches off from another in the speciation process.I must admit that there are sections (those on variation and hybridism, for example) that I found myself skimming. But, on the other hand, chapters such as those on the “Struggle for Existence” and “Natural Selection” drew me into reading every word.Stephen Jay Gould summed up Darwin by saying that he was conservative in his personal life, liberal in his political views (in his strong opposition to slavery for example), and radical in his scientific ideas. I’ll end with Darwin’s own succinct summary, from his Introduction, of the most important of these radical scientific ideas, his theory of natural selection:“As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.”

It’s one the most important scientific works published in the last 200 years!I’ve already read this book, quite a long time ago, but was borrowed from the library. So wanted to get my own copy now I am reading a bit more again.Booked arrived packed ok and there was no damage to the book. Is as described and brand new!

Good

Great knowledge

Brilliant thank you so much, stunning book cover

Studying an Access to HE course Health at college and this is perfect for my needs. Value for money and far delivery.

Good quality

This is a superb edition of one of the most important books ever written on zoology and the natural world, if not science itself. Darwin’s work is clear, accessible, and a pleasure to read. It was also written at a time before genetics was understood, and yet Darwin could see that the vast variety of forms present in nature suggested some kind of mechanism that, when acted upon by natural selection, had been an engine of evolution for millions of years. This embossed hardback edition with gold block lettering is a very smart edition to anyone’s library.