Darwin's Odyssey: The Voyage of the Beagle

by Kevin Jackson

The young Charles Darwin was like a young Indiana Jones. For five years in his mid-twenties, he sailed on the BEAGLE around the world, exploring jungles, climbing mountains, trekking across deserts. With every new landfall, he had new he rode through bandit country, was thrown into jail by revolutionaries, took part in an armed raid with marines, survived two earthquakes, hunted and fished. He suffered the terrible cold and rain of Tierra del Fuego, the merciless heat of the Australian outback and the inner pangs of heartbreak. He also made the discoveries that finally led him to formulate his theory of Natural Selection as the driving force of evolution. The five-year voyage of the BEAGLE was the basis for all Darwin's later work; but it also turned him from a friendly idler into the greatest scientist of his century.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Biography

89 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 16, 2013

About the author

There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Kevin Jackson's childhood ambition was to be a vampire but instead he became the last living polymath. His colossal expertise ranged from Seneca to Sugababes, with a special interest in the occult, Ruskin, take-away food, Dante's Inferno and the moose. He was the author of numerous books on numerous subjects, including Fast: Feasting on the Streets of London (Portobello 2006), and reviewed regularly for the Sunday Times.
From: http://portobellobooks.com/3014/Kevin...

Kevin Jackson was an English writer, broadcaster and filmmaker.

He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge. After teaching in the English Department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, he joined the BBC, first as a producer in radio and then as a director of short documentaries for television. In 1987 he was recruited to the Arts pages of The Independent. He was a freelance writer from the early 1990s and was a regular contributor to BBC radio discussion programmes.

Jackson often collaborated on projects in various media: with, among others, the film-maker Kevin Macdonald, with the cartoonist Hunt Emerson, with the musician and composer Colin Minchin (with whom he wrote lyrics for the rock opera Bite); and with the songwriter Peter Blegvad.

Jackson appears, under his own name, as a semi-fictional character in Iain Sinclair's account of a pedestrian journey around the M25, London Orbital.

Adapted from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun fact: The Captain of the H.M.S. Beagle, Robert Fitzroy, who took Charles Darwin aboard on his voyage to collect evidence for natural selection, later committed suicide by gunshot while clutching a Bible in one hand and shouting "The Book! The Book!". Weirder fact: The previous Captain of the Beagle had taken his own life too. This is the story of the most monumental mission ever taken by a man and Man, far more important than the Moon landing or any further space exploration. Darwin, whose father Francis had predicted would be "a failure and disgrace to his family" hopped aboard ship after reading Lyle on geology and firmly convinced himself there had to be another explanation of the origin and evolution of life than the Biblical account or even current scientific theory, which put the age of the heart at ten thousand years, at most. Like all geniuses, Darwin had the answer first---evolution through natural selection---and then set out to ply open the earth for evidence. DARWIN'S ODYSSEY is an adventure tale for the mind and heart. In Argentina the rural caudillo Rosas had him arrested and almost executed as a British spy. Living among the Indians of Tierra del Fuego, most of them enslaved to the white man, strengthened Darwin's only known political conviction, his hatred of slavery. Finally, came the trip to the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador and Darwin's observation that even on islands separated by only of few miles creatures ranging from finches to tortoises differed significantly in bodily features. The Beagle returned to England carrying the most dangerous idea ever conceived and proved by one man: "Not only did God not exist but no such being had ever existed". All of natural history, including human history up to that point, was a lie. Capt. Fitzroy was right. He had inadvertently allowed a shy bookworm aboard his ship a brought back a revolutionary.

[Amber Lundgren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very brief review and basic summary of Darwin and his famous journey

If you have an interest in evolution or Darwinism this is a good introduction into how he came into his very controversial ideals.

[Adrian Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good introduction

Provided a very enjoyable introduction to the life and work of Charles Darwin and in particular his extraordinary voyage on the Beagle.

[David Highton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clear and concise account of Darwin’s five years of discovery

[Susie Rangel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My nerdy self loves to re-read this one over and over.

[Pat Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly what it claims to be, a simple factual telling of Darwin's voyage. Short and easily readable.

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not often when you think the book should be a lot longer than it is. But here is a case.

Jackson's book to be fair, is a Kindle single, and deliberately written to be of novella length. But this cannot possibly do Darwin's story justice. It reminds me of a book called The Great Bathroom Book in which there are extremely shortened versions of great literature. I'm not sure it should be allowed.

Inevitably this will be compared to others literature on Darwin's life and particularly his voyage in the Beadle. In this matter, go no further than Harry Thompson's excellent This Thing of Darkness. This is actually the story of Fitzroy, and his three voyages, told in 3 parts, or even books, as the whole thing is 800+ pages. Truly an epic, it is the middle of the three in which Darwin is involved, but Thompson writes beautifully throughout. As many will know, he tragically died young just after finishing it.

[Santino Maulucci · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very well written. The reader gets a detailed account of the voyage of the Beagle. It also gives the general mood of Darwin, Fitzroy, and the crew in a engaging way. I also liked how the writer didn't exactly cheer Darwin on during the course of the book. I really don't know how any person could even consider evolution as an idea to be considered. The idea that rain pounding on rocks for millions of years some how produced a life, and then expanded into insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals with so many species that nobody knows how many there are in the world yet, is totally absurd. And don't forget this is all a huge mistake that randomly happened.

[Nicholas Maulucci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Darwin was an immature, feckless, shallow killer of animals. this book tried to portray him in a favorable light and still couldn't cover up his obsession with hunting birds, his fickleness, his half-belief in his own hare-brained theories. one of the least intelligent famous people I have ever read about. it would have been good for someone to have hung a millstone about his neck and cast him over the side of the BEAGLE and into the sea.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How great would be the desire in every admirer of nature to behold...the scenery of another planet! Yet to every person...it may be truly said, that at the distance of only a few degrees from his native soil, the glories of another world are opened up to him." ~Charles Darwin.

Excellent book...easy read.

[David Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darwin's Evolution

Excellent insight into the changing world, tropical rain forests and major earthquakes versus sub arctic Terra del Fuego
Hard to imagine a European not being forced to think of a single act of creation leading to both the residents of Terra del Fuega and the duck billed platypus.
dynamic evolutionary results. Excellent read.

[Sid Hetzler · Rating 5 out of 5]

gives an understanding of Darwinian evolution direct and to the point

Gives an understanding of Darwinian evolution direct and to the point. It is simple, clear and valuable for a new reader ready to explore the full text of Darwin's thinking. It also shows the nature of the scientific mind at work reasoning from facts to theory, and then using theory to explain more facts.

[Norman Worley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Good book informative it reads good and keeps your interest. Darwin gets a lot of blame for the thoughts that scares man about who he is, but I after reading g the book.........well you decided.

[Stephen_Digital · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent book

I found this book both a good read as a story and interesting/educational as a work of non fiction. The length of the book is just right any longer and it could have become overbearing but out was long enough to include interesting facts.

[Raven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not know much about Darwin before reading this Kindle single. I thought the book gave a good overview and was a decent read while the kids took a nap.

[Bcoghill Coghill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little piece that brought back my reading of the voyage, his autobiography, and biographies of Chuck.

[James Sowden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read

Great brief insight into Darwin's life before, during and after the voyage and what her saw and how he worked

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and readable introduction to Darwin

I found the book easy reading and gave me the key points from Darwin's life. This could easily be a stepping stone to further more detailed literature