Charles Darwin: Voyaging

Charles Darwin #1

by Janet Browne

Few lives of great men offer so much interest - and so many mysteries - as the life of Charles Darwin, the greatest figure of nineteenth-century science, whose ideas are still inspiring discoveries and controversies more than 100 years after his death. Yet, only with the publication of Voyaging, the first volume of this acclaimed biography, do we have a truly vivid and comprehensive picture of Darwin as a man and a scientist.

The second and final volume of Janet Browne's biography of Darwin - The Power of Place - is also available from Pimlico.

Genres: Biography, Science, History, Evolution, Nonfiction, Biology, History Of Science

605 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Elizabeth Janet Browne (née Bell, born 30 March 1950) is a British historian of science, known especially for her work on the history of 19th century biology. She taught at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College, London, before returning to Harvard. She is currently Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of two Volumes which has quickly become the definitive Biography of Charles Darwin (and rightly so).

Ms Browne's research is exhaustive, but never boring. Her analysis is never stretches it's neck out further than her facts can substantiate.
It's true measure is in her telling of the 20 "lost" years between Darwin's burgeoning belief in Transmutation and his eventual theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. Under Ms. Browne's pen, the period from 1839 to 1859 is anything but "lost." She brings Darwin's research and thoughts to life as well as a plausible, step by step explanation as to why it took him 20 years to publish "The Origin of Species". Too many biographers are quick to say he was scared to publish or that he just enjoyed the research and never wanted to publish (until Wallace forced his hand) and leave it at that. Let Janet Browne give you the full story. It's much more complicated and interesting. If you're only going to read one biography of Darwin. I'd recommend this one.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the close of this 550 page biography of Darwin's life up to age 49, I was disappointed that I would have too wait to read the second volume. You might think that 200 pages on Darwin's early life is too much, but Browne reveals his early interest in nature and offers convincing evidence that Darwin was not the home-bound hypochondriac I at least imagined before reading this biography. We tend to focus too much on natural selection and evolution, and not enough on his studies of geology and taxonomy, not to mention Darwin's successful fossil-hunting in South America. Sound intriguing? It is! It's also very illuminating about how Darwin struggled to explain species variability and to accept evolution as a fact, and how he became a masterful politician in the scientific circles of his day.

[Feisty Harriet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this! I love Browne's style of bringing Darwin, his family, his adventure aboard The Beagle, and his studious life in London/Shropshire afterward to life. I was fascinated by Darwin's thought process, on how long it took him to figure out what he wanted to say on evolution and changes in species; years, it took him years! This book made me want to start keeping notebooks of my thoughts, I am blown away at how much information Browne mined from such notebooks and letters, little things that were probably inconsequential for Darwin but seem like a treasure trove to the modern (slightly nerdy) reader. I can't wait to read Part 2 of this biography!!

[Colleen Earle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me longer to finish than I had anticipated.
This is part one of a two part biography and includes Darwin's family's history, voyage on the Beagle, Marriage to Emma, and the beginnings of his work on Origins.
It is written in an accessible way, but is still quite dense.

[Kevin Orrman-Rossiter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evolution is probably the scientific theory that more people have an opinion on, than any other. Whether a vocal supporter or critic I would doubt that many have read Darwin's On the Origin of Species to appreciate why this book made, and continues to make, such an impact. The meticulous original research, the tremendous secondary research, and the precision philosophizing that Darwin carried out in creating his landmark book are beautifully examined in Janet Browne's biography of Charles Darwin's early years (1809-1856). This first volume, of a two part biography finishing at the point where:

Yet the idea took root. Off he went to consult Hooker, and then to London to talk it over properly with Lyell. In his heart he was ready. Twenty years of thought were waiting to be expressed, more if he included the Beagle voyage. However reluctantly, he sensed his journey coming to an end. By 14 May he was convinced. He would write a book. "began by Lyell's advice writing species sketch," he recorded solemnly in his journal. "I am like Croesus overwhelmed with my riches in facts," he told Fox soon afterwards, "& I mean to make this book as perfect as ever I can."

Browne's aptly named biography, Charles Darwin: Voyaging, is about Darwin. It is about what made Darwin, by all contemporary accounts an ordinary person, the genius thinker who wrote one of the most influential books to the present time. The incisive brilliance he displayed, and the prominence it attained, attest that the writer of On the Origin of Species was no ordinary person. Other men, including Jean Baptiste Lamarck, Robert Chambers, Alfred Russell Wallace, Herbert Spencer, and Erasmus Darwin, Charle's own grandfather, has all proposed theories of 'transmutation'. 'Evolution' was not used in the modern sense until the 6th edition, the last edition of On the Origin of Species published in Darwin's lifetime.

Darwin's development of his theory evolution is forever linked with his voyage on the Beagle and the birds and animals of the Galapagos Islands. Little did I realise, until reading Voyaging, what led him to be on that Beagle voyage, what the voyage entailed, and finally how Darwin spent the subsequent 20 years, the years prior to that decisive moment to write his book.

Charles Darwin was born into a household of professional wealth. His father was a country doctor of medicine, who prudently grew his wealth through astute investments in local enterprises, becoming sufficiently wealthy to make as much again from a 'side' business of lending money to his landed and mercantile neighbors. He was also married to Susannah Wedgwood, oldest daughter of the pottery magnate, Josiah Wedgwood. The story presented by Browne is one of a contented childhood for Charles, notwithstanding his mother dying when he was eight, and him hating the time spent at Shrewsbury boarding school, he was nonetheless well loved and cared for. His early intellectual development particularly influenced by his older brother Erasmus.

At the age of 16 Charles was sent to Edinburgh University to study medicine. This was coincident with his brother Erasmus, who was there, after studying medicine at Cambridge, to attend courses at an authorised medical school to fulfill the requirements for an M.B degree. It was at Edinburgh, and later at Cambridge, that Charles developed his most key connections and networks; people who would recommend him for the Beagle voyage and be his entrance into the philosophical inner circles of the Geological Society of London and the Royal Society of London.

Charles Darwin joined the Royal Navy surveying vessel HMS Beagle, for its expedition to South America, not as an official naturalist, that post was usually the purvey of the naval surgeon (as was Darwin's bulldog, Thomas Henry Huxley, on his 1840s voyage on board the HMS Rattlesnake), instead he was to be a gentleman companion to the captain, Robert FitzRoy.

Darwin was chosen not because he was noticeably good at natural history, although this was a factor in ensuring he was put forward for the voyage by his Cambridge professors, nor because he was an aspiring "savant," well trained at university, but because he was an amiable young man of good social standing who looked as if he would be easy to live with.

Browne's insightful retelling of the voyage is both exciting and well researched. This is an example of the strength of Browne's biography. The voyage is a colorful, exciting, and tedious, 57 months long part of Darwin's life. Browne brings it to vivid life with exquisite detail and insightful attention to the events and patterns that were important for the next stages of Darwin's life. Browne draws on the many available resources, the daily logs of both Darwin and FitzRoy, the monthly personal letters that Darwin wrote to his sister back in England, the journals and papers that were submitted by Darwin and FitzRoy to learned Societies, letters from Darwin to his learned acquaintances and friends, the official voyage publications and autobiographies by both Darwin and FitzRoy, and other contemporary primary sources. The chapters on the voyage read like a adventure story, while being bolstered by sufficient, but unobtrusive, referencing to satisfy all but the most pedant of critics. These chapters are so well written they have tempted me to take from my shelf an unread copy of The Voyage of the Beagle to hear what Darwin had to say directly.

As a further testimony to Browne's scholarship and writing I will not only be re-reading Darwin's On the Origin of Species, but also other books of great contemporary influence on Darwin's thinking; Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine De Monet De Lamarke's 1809 Zoological Philosophy and Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology. Lyell's work was published in three volumes between 1830 and 1833 and Darwin 'devoured' each volume as it was released during his time on the Beagle. It, and his discussions with Lyell both during and after the voyage, were hugely influential on the development of Darwin as a naturalist and his thinking on the transmutation of continents, coral reefs, plants and animals.

Darwin's intellectual 'voyaging' continued a pace once he was back in England. I will admit to having the erroneous image of Darwin at this stage 'philosophizing' about what he found on the Beagle expedition - and somehow through sheer brainpower arrived at his evolutionary theory. Yes Darwin wrote many papers on many 'naturalist' topics based on his Beagle observations and collections. Yes he discussed his evolving thesis with his close intellectual circle - coming to the conclusion in his own mind that species transmuted over time, with no need at all for a divine creator. Yes he had put this idea onto paper, and even went to the stage of picking a set of potential editors from the liberal end of Victorian social and intellectual spectrum for his essay, in case of his early demise. That all changed in late October 1884, when an unknown (and then anonymous) author, Robert Chambers, published a comprehensive work on the evolution of living things, under the title: Vestiges of the natural History of Creation.

Darwin was stunned. Reading Vestiges in November 1884 was a traumatic shock from which he only partially recovered. Hunched over a copy in the British Museum Library, with the three other books he had ordered left disregarded by his side, he hardly believed his eyes. The general thesis was exactly the same as his: that, as Darwin dispiritedly put it, "species are shown not to be immutable."

Vestiges however was journalistic and all-encompassing, taking the questions far beyond the available evidence and addressing all the questions about man's relationship with animals and God, all the moral questions that Darwin carefully had avoided. This eagerness of the author to accept and relay the most astonishing stories as genuine was the book's undoing in the eyes of high science.

The savage criticism meted out to the author of Vestiges forewarned Darwin how his essay would probably be met by the intellectual heavyweights of the day. So just before Christmas in 1886, Darwin embarked on a study of barnacles, a subject that had fascinated him since 1835. Darwin's "beloved barnacles" study lasted for eight years. This truly remarkable 'middle-age' study made his name, to his contemporaries, as a serious naturalist, and set the stage for rewriting and presenting his 25 years of thought and ideas on transmutation of species.

This is an invaluable biography of Charles Darwin. I challenge any reasonable person to read it an not be impressed about the detailed examination and intellectual firepower that went into the development of Darwin's thesis. I recommend this to all as an example of how science is done, especially to those loudly strident advocates from both sides of the evolution argument, inform yourselves - this is a great place to start.

This review was first published here: http://dragonlaughing.tumblr.com/post...

[Colin Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first volume in the biography of Darwin by Janet Browne, at the time Reader in History of Biology at the Welcome Institute, London. The book follows Darwin’s life through school and university, at first Cambridge then Edinburgh and back to Cambridge as he went from training as a doctor, then a clergyman and then to an Ordinary Degree before he found his way onto the HMS Beagle voyage. His trials and tribulations and overland expeditions before the Galapagos Islands and finally back to England and a life of research and discovery, with lots of written papers and books as well as associations with learned scientific institutions. He developed a great body of correspondents through whom he shared and discussed various scientific research and interests. He was clearly a most sociable and liked man and became a husband and a father. This volume, one of two, leaves him at the time when, after much dithering and procrastination, he has made the decision to publish his Origins of Species.

An interesting and stimulating book that is presented in an easily read form and if this had not been so then the 547 pages with notes, bibliography and index might well have been too daunting a task for a general reader. However, for me, this was a good read with lots of information presented to make me want to continue into the second volume. 5 stars.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

really excellent book. it feels like it starts a bit slow, focusing quite a bit on darwin's extended family and early years, but it later becomes clear how much the ancestry, access to resources, and his early interests come to shape his life experience. the intellectual context in which darwin came of age makes clear just how transgressive his ideas were to become, and browne details this in sufficient but not gratuitous detail.

the beagle journey was fascinating, but the true pleasure of this book is closely following the development of darwin's intellectual journey.

browne does a wonderful job stringing out the narrative of how interdisciplinary thinking, a fearlessness in bold predictions, and a refusal to protect sacred cows (primarily abrahamic religious notions of grand floods shaping the physical world and creationism) created the foundation for darwin to arrive at natural selection. i personally really enjoyed seeing the logical leaps in real time and directly understanding darwin's process (i.e. write, then write more, read it back, read more in different subjects, write again). it is amazing to me to watch someone who has such a strong vision in mind that they are rarely ever stumped about what do next. it's intimidating and inspiring at the same time.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really in no position to say, but many of the other reviewers boldly state that this biography is the definitive Darwin biography. Definitive or not, it's a very good book. After finishing volume 1, I can say that I think it's the only one I'll have any need to read.

Voyaging covers the first half or so of Darwin's life, including childhood, school days, trip around the world on the Beagle, and finding success in the scientific community upon his return. It also covers his awkward courtship of the woman who becomes his wife, the birth and raising of children (including the death of one), and his slowly coming to terms with his growing belief in the mutability of species over time and what that means to the philosophical foundations of western thought.

So it's a lot to cover.

Browne does it mostly with aplomb. The only section that seems to get bogged down in unnecessary detail is the one dealing with Darwin's stint in school, where we hear at great length about specific classes and professors, to what end I'm not entirely sure.

The rest of the book, considering it is a 550 page biography of a 19th century figure, moves along swiftly. Browne marshals lots of epistolary evidence for her views of Darwin, extensively quoting from correspondence and Darwin's notebooks. Darwin's views and scientific output are placed in the larger context his societal setting, and are discussed in ways that even us non-science majors can easily grasp.

What becomes clear over the course of the book is exactly how hard Darwin had to work, and how many different kinds of experiences were necessary, for him to finally reach his conclusions. The five years on board the Beagle are really just the start. That gave him some of the seeds of the ideas, but they couldn't have germinated without many other factors. Darwin wasn't alone in working on developing a theory of species change over time, and his network of other scholars played a large part in realizing his ultimate work. In addition, years studying beetles and barnacles in minute detail were critical in helping him come to conclusions that set his theory apart from competitors of the era (especially in helping him grasp that variation is already present across species and that sexual reproduction is key in determining how variation is passed on.) The book ends just as Darwin is beginning to work on the book that would be On the Origin of Species.

Browne skillfully dips into what, for me, is the most interesting aspect of Darwin's life, his grappling with how his scientific ideas interact with religious tenets. Darwin is keenly aware of the cultural impact of evolution. People very much then (and to some degree, even now) did not wish to equate human beings with animals, because this detracted from the special-ness of humankind. In one very touching scene, Browne describes a letter Emma (Darwin's wife) writes him asking him to keep his heart open to religious sentiment and mentions her fear of spending eternity without him. Darwin's response "When I am dead, know that many times, I have kissed and cried over this," shows how deeply emotionally involved he was in the underlying meaning of his work.

The section dealing with the death of Darwin's 10 year old daughter Anne is similarly touching, as we read Darwin's letters from the distant treatment center back home to Emma, who is pregnant and cannot travel. The grief is palpable, and tremendously humanizing.

I'm sure there are other excellent Darwin biographies out there, but I don't think you're going to find one that is overall better than Janet Browne's in terms of understanding the breadth of Darwin's life and work, and it's broader meaning. I thoroughly look forward to volume 2.

[Rachel Weiler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful introduction to Darwin's early life - from his Austen-esque childhood, to his circumnavigation of the globe on the Beagle, to his 20 years researching and developing his theory of evolution by natural selection before publishing the Origin of Species. I appreciated learning the detailed social, political, and scientific context of his life. I was constantly relaying Darwin facts to my partner as I read!

I would say this is a book for someone with passing knowledge of (or at least interest in learning about) Regency/Victorian England. I spent a chunk of my reading time on Wikipedia learning about the Reform Act of 1832, the "water cure" craze of the 1850s, etc. I do not regret those Wikipedia rabbit holes!

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

May disappoint those who anticipate the publication of The Origin of Species (you have to wait for Volume Two). However, the details of his five years as companion to the captain--and unofficial naturalist--on the Beagle are rich; culled mostly from his letters home and his journal entries, the bio is a nice complement to any who've read his Voyage of the Beagle or who never plan to.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable account of Darwin's life, situating his intellectual development socially and economically. Browne does gets a bit tedious at times, but the book is nevertheless valuable for the engaging portrait it offers.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful biography. I finished this volume with the sense that I was very well acquainted with the man and his time. I couldn't wair for the second volume to appear.

[Leisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

great biography on darwin!

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darwin's voyage is central to this book. Reading his Voyage of the Beagle is more entertaining. If you want to get to know Darwin, read that or his autobiography first.

[Adriel K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I got through over 500 pages and Darwin still hasn’t published anything about Natural Selection. That's the thing about biographies written by proper historians, right? They need to examine all the evidence and be really long?

And despite that I liked - even at points loved - reading this. In particular I enjoy the sharp contrast into which Browne throws Darwin's personality: where he was a hobbyist and how he became a proper naturalist, where he was particularly gifted and weird and anxious and wanted to be alone and work, but also where his ability to be a well-adjusted, normal person with normal interests and hobbies enabled his journey (e.g. especially on convincing FitzRoy to let him come along, p160: "...socially adept, with refined manners and country-based interests in riding and shooting, clever without being overbearing, enthusiastic about the prospect of a voyage and new sights to see, tactful about the need for privacy. There were elements too of ingratiation - of his ready deference to the captain's authority, a willingness to be servile.) It’s clear anyways that he had developed many ideas along a lot of lines well before Wallace pushed him over the edge. I will take the Darwin vs. Wallace side again in my upcoming review for Prum's book; Browne, at least in this volume, did not explore or foreshadow the sexual selection theories that Prum elevates.

And then there's the bigger world that's painted around Darwin, that is most of the time interesting: Whigs and Tories, new money and old money, medical school in Edenborough and parochial school at Cambridge, Darwin’s marriage (the analysis of how his hypochondria makes their marriage work on p429 is cutting, lots of other asides from Browne about timeless marriage anxieties made me laugh) and family life and network of friends and naturalists. Then there's FitzRoy, and abolition, and the Fuegians and the boat drama on the ship.

(The Fuegians! That's a terrible and fascinating part of the story that I had not heard about, and Browne gives appropriate weight to in developing Darwin's ideas! p250: "And of all Darwin's varied experiences during the voyage, it was this recognition of the connections between humans around the world that moved him the most: more than the geology or zoology, more than the stars over the Andes, or even the lush abandonment of the tropics. He was forced to acknowledge that the gauzy film of culture was nothing but an outer garment for humanity, acquired or lost in response to the individual milieu...")

And last it does a great job positioning the transition that Darwin represented, or perhaps ushered along, in the context of the Empire. Early in the volume we are steeped in the Paleyan view of the natural world, which is also an apt framework for the justification and reification of British imperialism: “all of the perfect adaptation or contrivances Paley saw in nature were correspondingly understood as features specially created by God to fit each and every being for its role in an overall plan; a plan, he went on. To say, characterized by stability, by inbuilt hierarchies, and by orderly arrangements reflecting the social and moral structure of Britain." (p 129)  

By the end of the volume, of course, this nobility and naivite turns to darker self-awareness. About Darwin's trepidation to publish: “But he also faced the arduous task of reorienting the way Victorians looked at nature… The world that Sedgwick and Henslow cherished, the world steeped in moral meaning which helped mankind seek out higher goals in life, was not Darwin’s…. Much of this was perhaps familiar to a nation immersed in competitive affairs: … the theory of natural selection could only have emerged out of the competitive context of Victorian England... The pleasant outward face of nature was precisely that — only an outward face. Underneath was perpetual struggle, species against species, individual against individual.” (P 542) It's interesting, to say the least, that our best scientific revisions often just mirror the political world evolving around us? (Although again, Prum wouldn't quite say it's so dark, so let's not over index on a metaphor.)

Did I say it was really long? I guess that comes with the territory, I don't read too much of the genre. If you were reading this for, say, a way to enhance a trip to the Galapagos, well the part about the Galapagos is only a few pages long! But that's representative of the relatively small amount of time they spent there and that it was, at the time, relatively unremarkable.

Will I read volume 2?!

Thank you Emma, via Adam

[Phil Webster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the first part of a really excellent two-volume biography of Charles Darwin. If you want a well-written, in-depth and very detailed Darwin biography, then this is the one for you. The great evolutionary theorist Ernst Mayr called it “the definitive Darwin biography”. Browne’s study is, on balance, even better (and definitely even more detailed) than that other great biography, “Darwin”, by Adrian Desmond and James Moore.

Stephen Jay Gould once described Darwin as being “radical in his scientific ideas, liberal in his political and social views, and conservative in personal lifestyle...”

This book by Janet Browne shows us that Gould’s summary of Darwin is a perfectly accurate one. Browne describes Darwin’s personality, his personal life, his class position, the social context of nineteenth century England, and the influences which led him to develop his theory of natural selection, as well as Darwin’s researches and the theory itself.

This first volume covers Darwin’s childhood and youth, his voyage on the Beagle, and then his life back in England up to 1856, when he finally decided to start writing up his theory in detail for publication.

There is plenty of ammunition in this book to shoot down the ridiculous conspiracy theory which claims that Darwin stole the credit for the theory of natural selection from Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace certainly deserves credit for independently coming up with the same idea, but Wallace himself was always happy to play second fiddle to Darwin. For example, in 1908 Wallace made a speech to the Linnaean Society in which he explicitly defended Darwin’s priority, pointing out 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...”

This book shows that Darwin probably 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. In 1842 he wrote what he called the “pencil sketch of my species theory”, and in 1844 he wrote a fuller and more polished version.

Darwin’s letters, notebooks and the two essays/sketches, show beyond question that all the key ideas that Darwin made public in 1859 in “On the Origin of Species” had already been developed by him much earlier.

For example, in a letter of 1844 Darwin tentatively let his friend Hooker in on his secret theorising and research: “...I am almost convinced...that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable...I think I have found out (here’s presumption!) the simple way by which species become exquisitely adapted to various ends.” He also set out the theory in an 1857 letter to Asa Gray.

I also find the personal side of Darwin’s story interesting, including, for example, the tragic and moving story of the death of his daughter Anne, and the worries that Darwin’s theories caused for his religious wife, Emma.

There are only two things that I am not happy with Janet Browne about. Firstly, there is the fact that seven years passed between the publication of the two separate volumes of this biography. Even allowing for the enormous amount of research that went into these volumes, that is a long time! I remember that when the first volume was published in 1995 I decided not to get it until the second one was published, so that I could buy and read both together. I didn’t think that I would have to wait for seven years to be able to do that. Still, that’s water under the bridge now.

My second quibble is that Browne speculates, without any real evidence, about the sexuality of Robert Grant, whom Darwin met in Edinburgh. Darwin ended up losing his respect for Grant because he felt that Grant had appropriated some of Darwin’s own researches. But Browne, uncharacteristically, rather wildly speculates that the rift might also have developed because Darwin might have “proved unresponsive to late-night suggestions of a different nature.” Evidence?

But these two points in no way prevent me from thoroughly recommending this wonderful biography.

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many biographies of Charles Darwin around, and I'm sure there will be more. I read this some years ago, following it with its sequel Charles Darwin: The Power of Place. I don't know enough to say it's the best, but I know how much I enjoyed it and that I found it highly readable.

I also highly recommend Labor, Nature, and the Evolution of Humanity: The Long View of History, a compilation that starts with Frederick Engels' unfinished piece "The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man."

I also am an admirer of the writings of Stephen Jay Gould who contributed the theory of punctuated equilibrium to evolutionary thought, as one who understands Marx's adaptation of Hegelian dialectics, But he was also a great popularizer of Darwinism. I suggest starting with Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History.

[Rhymen Codex · Rating 4 out of 5]

We tend to think of persistence as the ability to pursue one idea without interruption. Darwin's life reveals a different pattern. While developing his theory of evolution, he spent years studying barnacles, orchids, and the reproduction of plants. His central idea remained unfinished, but the work surrounding it continued to grow.

There is a familiar rhythm in this. We often move between questions, follow lines of inquiry that seem unrelated, and postpone presenting an idea until we feel we have gathered enough evidence to support it. From the outside, this can resemble hesitation. Look more closely, and another structure emerges: a sustained effort to understand something fully before committing it to the world.

Darwin's life reminds us that intellectual progress does not always follow a straight line. Sometimes, the architecture of an idea becomes visible only through years of accumulated observations, repeated questions, and the patience to leave certain things unresolved.

[Jeff Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my second reading of this glorious book on the life of Charles Darwin up to the time he started to write his most famous book on Natural Selection.
Back in 1996 (a year after Janet Browne published the hardback), I read many books on evolution but Voyaging was by far the most thorough (together with the second book, The Power of Place, which I bought immediately it was published in 2002) and well-written.
There is an abundance of detail but each particle of Darwin's life, from his own compulsion to note each financial transaction he makes when older to his un-Victorian affection (outspoken love) for his children) is portrayed with feeling and a viewpoint about how this somehow adds to the way we see the great man.
Writing a book on the period before his exposition on natural selection and providing the reader with enough to maintain not just an interest but a desire to read more must have been a challenge but one that Janet Browne masters so well.

[Jitse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book on Darwin’s history. It very accurately, both in great detail and with great ease and accessibility, describes how his early life, Cambridge, his Beagle years, his interdisciplinary nature and work, his eye for details and facts and the death of his favorite daughter led him to propose his theory of evolution by natural selection. Like a good whiskey it matured for twenty years, before it delivered his taste.
More than anything it shows how much he was a child of his time. Evolutionary views had been argued before (Lamarck, his grandfather and the Vestiges) but not so successfully. Exactly because he came up with the mechanism and argued it so well, his theory became accepted. It also explains why early pushback was not mere shortsightedness but also because the earlier versions were way too speculative and not substantiated with a mechanism

[Eugenius · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started this book, I had a hard time imagining how Darwin's story could fully fill out as many pages as it has, especially only being Volume I. Janet Browne did us all the service of deep diving immensely into researching his life and sometimes through the far reachings of correspondences of friends of friends. Reading this book felt as though I was a part of that time, living within the culture and even theologies of the Darwin age and I could see how every step that he took and every event he lived through in his personal life led him closer to the concepts of evolution that we still follow today. Browne was practical, exspansive, and had an easy to enjoy tone throughout this book and when I finally finished it, I got to feel a sense of understanding the more niche and complex aspects of his story and theories.

[Allegra Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant account of Darwin's voyage--how he came to board the Beagle, what he learned on his travels, and what he made of it all afterward. I particularly love Browne's discussion of Darwin's father. What a leap of faith he made, and the expense he shouldered in funding his son--a young man with no particular direction--as he embarked. Surely Mr. Darwin is one of unsung heroes of science--and an inspiration to every parent. The account of Charles Darwin's collections, his notes, and his adventures is riveting. Browne does a marvelous job dramatizing Darwin's intellectual development. We can see here the mix of intuition, observation, careful record keeping, collecting, and brilliant insight that led Darwin to develop his great theory. Inspiring on every level.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning biography of a stunning scientist. The breadth and depth of this biography are incredible. Not only tackles the Darwin family and some parts of the Wedgewood one, but also frames the state of affairs during the development of the industrial revolution, the university reform, and the rise of the gentry across the British Empire and beyond.

If you're into great people's lives, science, and history, this is a fantastic book to digest. Be warned that the book IS quite long (Chernow style) and it requires some concentration to plow through. However, the insights are definitely worthwhile.

[James Levy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite the overwhelming accomplishment the second volume is, but of enormous value. The two volumes reveal so much about the Victorian epoch, provide such astounding context for the work of Darwin (while never forgetting that although the pieces Evolution were "in the air" Darwin's discoveries were truly astonishing) that anyone with the least passing interest in the 19th century can enjoy and be enlightened by reading them. These books, and her edited letters of Darwin, place Browne among the finest of living historians.

[Cary Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great biography -- probably one of the few biographies I plan on going back and reading again. Great story of a man, an age, and a theory. At the end of it, I found myself wishing I could sit down and spend some time with this fascinating, likable man. This is the first half of Janet Browne's two-part biography, and should be read together with "The Power of Place."

[Dayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really came to appreciate the risk like no other, when Darwin shared Science as a professional, but which did not align with the theories of the 7-day creation story from the Bible. How long will people not believe what Science shows them?

This book inspired me to take a cruise around Cape Horn and see Tierra del Fuego and Chile for myself.

[Dave Frye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and so well written. And what an interesting man.
In particular, the travels of Darwin aboard the Beagle were far more spectacular, complex and varied than I ever knew or imagined.
And to think how long it took from those travels to actually publish his Theory of Evolution (‘Natural Selection’) was another captivating time for this incredible man.
Highly recommended!

[Jorge]

La mejor biografía que jamás he leído. Proporciona, además, una visión muy amplia -y hasta divertida- del sustrato cultural victoriano y de los cambios sociales que produce el progresivo dominio del método científico.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.meticulously researched but also presented in an appealing narrative fashion. The author shows how Darwin the man and Darwin the naturalist developed . She shares some of his less pleasant idiosyncrasies without diminishing the genius scientist or the good man that still shines through

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. More interesting than v. 2 which. One of best biographies I have ever read.