Darwin : The Power of Observation and Reflection

Charles Robert Darwin is a polarising personality. To some, he is one of the most famous naturalists in the history of mankind; to others he is The Devil’s Cousin. No matter how people view Charles Darwin, it is remarkable that very few know who Darwin really was, what he achieved, when, how, and why. Prof Braem, a biologist and historian of science, begins by investigating Charles Darwin’s family and shows that Darwin’s grandfather Erasmus, a famous physician and poet, as well as his father and several other members of the Darwin family, had a keen interest in scientific matters. But he also shows that Darwin’s road to naturalism was characterised by detours and surprises. After growing up in a wealthy family, Darwin ended up at the University in Edinburgh where he was, as decided by his authoritarian but revered father, to study medicine. Finally, Charles attended Cambridge to become a country parson; just by chance he sailed on HMS Beagle, a small battleship converted to survey the coasts of South America, as the table companion for Robert FitzRoy. Braem discusses every aspect of Charles Darwin’s provenance and education, his luck to be on HMS Beagle, the long and not always easy route to his famous Origin of Species, his ‘battle’ with religion and belief, and his lifelong insecurity and enigmatic illness. The Origin of Species, although without any doubt Darwin’s masterpiece, would not be the end of his work, and for more than 20 years after its publication, Darwin would write about the pollination of orchids, the variation in plants, the origin of man, and the expression of emotions, all aspects that were fundamental pillars for the proof of his theory. Braem’s book is a critical biography; it addresses Darwin’s errors, and some of the myths surrounding the British savant. These are stories that are spread around in the secondary literature and the textbooks of biology to this day. And it discusses the tightrope walk of a Victorian revolutionary in disguise.