Synopsis
Charles Darwin challenged many of the most deeply-held beliefs of the western world. Arguing for a material, not divine, origin of species, he showed that new species are achieved by 'natural selection'.
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Review
It's hard to talk about The Origin of Species without making statements that seem overwrought and fulsome. But it's true: this is indeed one of the most important and influential books ever written, and it is one of the very few groundbreaking works of science that is truly readable.
To a certain extent it suffers from the Hamlet problem--it's full of clichés! Or what are now clichés, but which Darwin was the first to pen. Natural selection, variation, the struggle for existence, survival of the fittest: it's all in here.
Darwin's friend and "bulldog" T.H. Huxley said upon reading the Origin, "How extremely stupid of me not to have thought of that." Alfred Russel Wallace had thought of the same theory of evolution Darwin did, but it was Darwin who gathered the mass of supporting evidence--on domestic animals and plants, on variability, on sexual selection, on dispersal--that swept most scientists before it. It's hardly necessary to mention that the book is still controversial: Darwin's remark in his conclusion that "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history" is surely the pinnacle of British understatement. --Mary Ellen Curtin
Book Description
Jim Endersby's major new scholarly edition debunks some of the myths that surround Darwin's book, and expores how it was originally written, published and read. Endersby provides a new, up-to-date and very readable introduction to this classic text and a level of scholarly apparatus unmatched by any other edition.
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The Origin of Species
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On the Origin of Species
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The Origin of Species
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The Origin of Species
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The Origin of Species
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The Origin of Species (Collector's Library)
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The Origin of Species (Collector's Library)
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On the Origin of Species
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Macmillan Collector's Library, 2004
ISBN 10: 1904633781
ISBN 13: 9781904633785
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The Origin of Species
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Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Leichte Kratzer / Abnutzungen / Druckstellen; Farbtonänderung. .0000000000In The Origin of Species Darwin outlined his theory of evolution, which proposed that species had been evolving and differentiating over time under the influence of natural selection. On its publication it became hugely influential, bringing about a seismic shift in the scientific view of humanity's place in the world that is still controversial today. It is both a brilliant work of science and also a clear, vivid and at times even moving, piece of writing that reflects both Darwin's genius and his boundless enthusiasm for the natural world.With an Afterword by Oliver Francis. Seller Inventory # 4c6b8bb2-55bc-48c7-b143-2b2fb038884a
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The Origin of Species
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London : Collector's Library, 2004
ISBN 10: 1904633781
ISBN 13: 9781904633785
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Seller: Barksdale Books, Almere, Netherlands
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Condition: Good. Original blind stamped red cloth, gilt lettered spine, dust jacket, banderole, all edges gilt, ribbon marker, small 8vo. Seller Inventory # 353992-XF35
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