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Las cartas del Beagle
El libro reúne, en orden cronológico, la colección completa de las cartas que Darwin envió y recibió durante su viaje a bordo del Beagle entre 1831 y 1836, durante el cual realizó muchas de las observaciones que perfilaron su teoría de la evolución de las especies a través de la selección natural. El intercambio epistolar muestra cómo la familia y amigos presenciaban, desde Inglaterra, el acopio de experiencias y materiales que lo ayudarían a sustentar dicha teoría, así como el encuentro con otras culturas y formas de vida. Todo ello acompañado de las ilustraciones de Conrad Martens, el paisajista que se unió a la travesía en 1833, durante el paso del navío por Montevideo.
- GenresScienceNonfiction
534 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2008
About the author
Charles Darwin
2,461 books3,516 followersCharles Robert Darwin of Britain revolutionized the study of biology with his theory, based on natural selection; his most famous works include
On the Origin of Species
(1859) and
The Descent of Man
(1871).
Chiefly Asa Gray of America advocated his theories.
Works of Jacques Martin Barzun include Darwin, Marx, Wagner (1941).
Charles Robert Darwin, an eminent English collector and geologist, proposed and provided scientific evidence of common ancestors for all life over time through the process that he called. The scientific community and the public in his lifetime accepted the facts that occur and then in the 1930s widely came to see the primary explanation of the process that now forms modernity. In modified form, the foundational scientific discovery of Darwin provides a unifying logical explanation for the diversity of life.
Darwin developed his interest in history and medicine at Edinburgh University and then theology at Cambridge. His five-year voyage on the Beagle established him as a geologist, whose observations and supported uniformitarian ideas of Charles Lyell, and publication of his journal made him as a popular author. Darwin collected wildlife and fossils on the voyage, but their geographical distribution puzzled him, who investigated the transmutation and conceived idea in 1838. He discussed his ideas but needed time for extensive research despite priority of geology. He wrote in 1858, when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay, which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication.
His book of 1859 commonly established the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. He examined human sexuality in Selection in Relation to Sex , and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals followed. A series of books published his research on plants, and he finally examined effect of earthworms on soil.
A state funeral recognized Darwin in recognition of preeminence and only four other non-royal personages of the United Kingdom of the 19th century; people buried his body in Westminster abbey, close to those of John Herschel and Isaac Newton.
Her fathered Francis Darwin, astronomer George Darwin, and politician, economist and eugenicist Leonard Darwin.
(Arabic: تشارلز داروين)
Chiefly Asa Gray of America advocated his theories.
Works of Jacques Martin Barzun include Darwin, Marx, Wagner (1941).
Charles Robert Darwin, an eminent English collector and geologist, proposed and provided scientific evidence of common ancestors for all life over time through the process that he called. The scientific community and the public in his lifetime accepted the facts that occur and then in the 1930s widely came to see the primary explanation of the process that now forms modernity. In modified form, the foundational scientific discovery of Darwin provides a unifying logical explanation for the diversity of life.
Darwin developed his interest in history and medicine at Edinburgh University and then theology at Cambridge. His five-year voyage on the Beagle established him as a geologist, whose observations and supported uniformitarian ideas of Charles Lyell, and publication of his journal made him as a popular author. Darwin collected wildlife and fossils on the voyage, but their geographical distribution puzzled him, who investigated the transmutation and conceived idea in 1838. He discussed his ideas but needed time for extensive research despite priority of geology. He wrote in 1858, when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay, which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication.
His book of 1859 commonly established the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. He examined human sexuality in Selection in Relation to Sex , and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals followed. A series of books published his research on plants, and he finally examined effect of earthworms on soil.
A state funeral recognized Darwin in recognition of preeminence and only four other non-royal personages of the United Kingdom of the 19th century; people buried his body in Westminster abbey, close to those of John Herschel and Isaac Newton.
Her fathered Francis Darwin, astronomer George Darwin, and politician, economist and eugenicist Leonard Darwin.
(Arabic: تشارلز داروين)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 25, 2019
Personal and intriguing insight into Darwin's mind and personality. The letters to and from friends and family show many sides of Darwins interests, concerns and discoveries. It humanises Darwin and makes you realise he was a young man in his early twenties with all the insecurities, concerns, curiosity and questions that we all have. Highly recommend!
April 5, 2026
Charles Darwin wrote much later in his life that “The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life, and has determined my whole career...”
This fascinating book brings together all the available letters both to and from Darwin, from the time that the possibility of him joining the Beagle voyage first arose, right through to his arrival back in England five years later in 1836. It’s one of the most enjoyable books that I’ve read recently.
It’s also a testament to how important letters were in those days, and to the fact that so many people kept the letters they received. The letters give us a real flavour of what Darwin’s Beagle adventure was like, and show us why it was so important for him.
Just to give a few examples, we read of: Darwin as a victim of severe seasickness; Captain FitzRoy’s doomed attempt to bring “Christian civilisation” to the people of Tierra del Fuego; Darwin’s disgust at the slavery he saw in Brazil; his scientific collecting and observation; the wonderful scenery; and the deaths of “poor little Musters” and other crewmen.
But I was surprised to find that what I enjoyed most was reading those letters which reveal the emotional closeness of Darwin and his friends and family (especially his sisters), and those which give an insight into the Jane Austen-like world of Darwin’s wider family. (The letters themselves often refer to characters from Austen’s books.)
My favourite Austen-ish character is Darwin’s former “close friend” Fanny Owen. She reminds Darwin about when they acted as “Housemaid and Postillion” together (?); describes how she was the “Undertaker” (organiser) for her sister’s wedding; refers to an unsuccessful suitor (called Hope) of one of Darwin’s sisters as “Forlorn Hope”; and says that the only drawback to the dancing after her sister’s wedding was “an occasional dreadful kick, from the too well shod Fantastic toes of some of the Beaux...”
Don’t expect letters about evolution: Darwin only developed his theory of evolution by natural selection once he was back in England, though he might have started thinking seriously about “transmutation” on the last stretch of his Beagle voyage in 1836. He certainly opened his first notebook on the subject in 1837, and the idea of natural selection as the mechanism of evolutionary change came to him, after reading Malthus, in 1838.
Alfred Russel Wallace independently came up with the same idea in 1858. But Wallace himself acknowledged that: “...the idea occurred to Darwin in October 1838, nearly twenty years earlier than to myself (in February 1858); and that during the whole of that twenty years he had been laboriously collecting evidence...”
Darwin did not develop his theory while on the Beagle, but things that he saw on the voyage - in South America and in the Galapagos Islands - certainly played a part in putting the idea into his head.
This fascinating book brings together all the available letters both to and from Darwin, from the time that the possibility of him joining the Beagle voyage first arose, right through to his arrival back in England five years later in 1836. It’s one of the most enjoyable books that I’ve read recently.
It’s also a testament to how important letters were in those days, and to the fact that so many people kept the letters they received. The letters give us a real flavour of what Darwin’s Beagle adventure was like, and show us why it was so important for him.
Just to give a few examples, we read of: Darwin as a victim of severe seasickness; Captain FitzRoy’s doomed attempt to bring “Christian civilisation” to the people of Tierra del Fuego; Darwin’s disgust at the slavery he saw in Brazil; his scientific collecting and observation; the wonderful scenery; and the deaths of “poor little Musters” and other crewmen.
But I was surprised to find that what I enjoyed most was reading those letters which reveal the emotional closeness of Darwin and his friends and family (especially his sisters), and those which give an insight into the Jane Austen-like world of Darwin’s wider family. (The letters themselves often refer to characters from Austen’s books.)
My favourite Austen-ish character is Darwin’s former “close friend” Fanny Owen. She reminds Darwin about when they acted as “Housemaid and Postillion” together (?); describes how she was the “Undertaker” (organiser) for her sister’s wedding; refers to an unsuccessful suitor (called Hope) of one of Darwin’s sisters as “Forlorn Hope”; and says that the only drawback to the dancing after her sister’s wedding was “an occasional dreadful kick, from the too well shod Fantastic toes of some of the Beaux...”
Don’t expect letters about evolution: Darwin only developed his theory of evolution by natural selection once he was back in England, though he might have started thinking seriously about “transmutation” on the last stretch of his Beagle voyage in 1836. He certainly opened his first notebook on the subject in 1837, and the idea of natural selection as the mechanism of evolutionary change came to him, after reading Malthus, in 1838.
Alfred Russel Wallace independently came up with the same idea in 1858. But Wallace himself acknowledged that: “...the idea occurred to Darwin in October 1838, nearly twenty years earlier than to myself (in February 1858); and that during the whole of that twenty years he had been laboriously collecting evidence...”
Darwin did not develop his theory while on the Beagle, but things that he saw on the voyage - in South America and in the Galapagos Islands - certainly played a part in putting the idea into his head.
January 16, 2021
Fascinating.
Big spoiler : his letter to his sister from the Galapagos is lost.
Big spoiler : his letter to his sister from the Galapagos is lost.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2016
Es un magnífco libro para quienes deseen tener una visión más detallada e íntima de la vida del naturalista a bordo del Beagle. Incluye un excelente prólogo de Janet Brown. La correspondencia de Darwin, desde antes de embarcarse en el Beagle se alterna cronológicamente con la de su familia, amigos y maestros, lo que otorga un sentido de continuidad a su extenso viaje. Muy interesante.
January 21, 2009
All of Darwin's correspondence from his Beagle voyage.
October 3, 2025
eu ganhei uma versão com fotos e ilustrações, fez minha experiência geral subir muito, interessante pra krl ver os desenhos e fotos do darwin
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews