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Works of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist, eminent as a collector and geologist, who proposed and provided scientific evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the process of natural selection. Darwin’s discovery remains the foundation of biology, as it provides a unifying logical explanation for the diversity of life.
This collection includes 17 most significant works complemented by author biography and contemporary analysis. These books are readable by a non-specialist. They attract widespread interest today as they did 150 years ago.
Each book features the table of contents linked to every chapter and section. The book was designed for optimal navigation on the Kindle, PDA, Smartphone, and other electronic readers. It is formatted to display on all electronic devices including the Kindle, Smartphones and other Mobile Devices with a small display.
Table of Contents
List of Works in Chronological Order
On the Origin of Species (1st edition, 1859)
On the Origin of Species (2nd edition, 1860)
On the Origin of Species (6th, most definitive edition, 1872)
Contemporary Analysis of "On the Origin of Species"
Charles Darwin Biography
About and Navigation
_________
List of Works in Chronological Order
Published works :: Autobiography :: Letters
Published works:
1839: Journal and Remarks (The Voyage of the Beagle)
1842: The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs
1844: Geological Observations of Volcanic Islands
1846: Geological Observations on South America
1859: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1st edition)
1860: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (2nd edition)
1868: Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication
1871: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
1872: On the Origin of Species (6th most definitive edition)
1872: The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals
1875: Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants
1875: Insectivorous Plants
1876: The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom
1877: The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species
1880: The Power of Movement in Plants
1881: The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms
Autobiography:
1887: Autobiography of Charles Darwin (Edited by his son Francis Darwin)
Letters:
1887: Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, (ed. Francis Darwin) Volume 1 and Volume 2
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
Introduction
When on board H.M.S. Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin of species--that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it.
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1908
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About the author
Charles Darwin
2,329 books3,386 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 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 23, 2025
interesting selection of works in dialogue with each other! terribly dense at times. but I suppose most of these guys do not claim to be writers.
April 20, 2025
Setting all controversy aside for the moment, Darwin is justly considered one of the great geniuses of human history. Reading his primary source material demonstrates his overwhelming compilation of empirical data, his measured judgements, and his courage in claiming that variation leads to speciation.
June 19, 2017
I had to give this entire book and all of its components a pretty thorough reading for a class. I don't know if I would have given it the effort outside of an academic setting but I loved it for what it was. This book is great in that it discusses all aspects of Darwin's thought, the myriad detractors, and those who have sought to reinterpret the implications for political purposes i.e. Spencer using natural selection to explain the plight of the poor. Even Darwin, in spite of being very cautious about making all of his proposal (thus making his writings exceedingly wordy), is quite an enjoyable read.
February 11, 2012
If you want all of Darwin's books this is the one and only for 99cts! Even has the original On the Origin of Species along with the 6th edition. I put this on my Nook but I am sure Kindle users can also.
Currently reading
March 14, 2013For those of you who are so bold that truth matters more to you than hiding yourself--your furry skin and tail--behind comforting fig leaves try Darwin. This Norton Anthology takes you through Darwin and neo Darwinian science
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January 24, 2025I read this book a while back, and truthfully I didn’t read it in its entirety, but I feel like it was significant enough that I should have it on my shelf. Reading this gave me a clearer view of how Darwinism was viewed in his time — both by those of Christian profession and humanist. I recall it being very interesting and opened my eyes to the true meaning of what was being claimed by Darwin as opposed to the straw-man arguments made by most southern evangelicals (which isn’t a direct attack, so much as it is just a piece of factual context for my prior views and issues which I took with Darwinism). So yeah, I learned a lot about how evolution actually “works” and while I’m still not convinced Darwin had it right, I do believe I am much more educated on the subject.
did-not-finish
September 15, 2020I was assigned to read the bulk of On the Origin of Species and various essays later in the anthology for a Science and Politics class, but because I didn't read the entire anthology and ultimately do not plan to, I'm marking it as DNF.
There's definitely no shortage of scientific, social, and ethical issues to discuss when it comes to Darwin's work and legacy. Especially in regard to the debate between evolutionism and creationism and the horrible effects of Social Darwinism, Darwin's writing itself and the commentary included here offers a lot to think about, discuss in classes, and incorporate into politics and future actions.
There's definitely no shortage of scientific, social, and ethical issues to discuss when it comes to Darwin's work and legacy. Especially in regard to the debate between evolutionism and creationism and the horrible effects of Social Darwinism, Darwin's writing itself and the commentary included here offers a lot to think about, discuss in classes, and incorporate into politics and future actions.
May 9, 2017
Good informational text read. very interesting at times and other times is difficult to read. I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn about Charles Darwin in depth.
December 23, 2017
**Read for Class**
July 14, 2023
Darwin may be a great scientist, and he is also a man who rode Galapagos Tortoises for "science". A humaniser of a monumental scientist
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October 15, 2025Uh what
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August 16, 2020249
108 “can adapt organic beings to his own uses”
118 “Thus I can understand how a flower and a bee might slowly become, either simultaneously or one after the other, modified and adapted in the most perfect manner to each other, by the continued preservation of individuals presenting mutual and slightly favorable deviations of structure.” ... “Natural selection can act only by the preservation and accumulation of infinitesimally small inherited modifications, each profitable to the preserved being; and as modern geology has almost vanished such views as the excavation of a Greta valley by a single diluvial wave, so will natural selection, if it be a true principle, banish the belief of the continued creation of new organic beings, or if any great and sudden modification in their structure.”
133-135 variation, inheritance, “sexual selection will give its aid to ordinary selection, by assuring to the most vigorous and best adapted males the greatest number of offspring ... Natural selection, also, leads to the divergence of character, for more loving beings can be supported in the same area the more they diverge in structure, habits, and constitution ... the more diversified these defendants become, the better will be their chance of succeeding in the battle of life ... Natural selection, as has just been remarked, leads to divergence if character and to much extinction of the less improved and intermediate forms of life. On these principles, I believe, the nature of the affinities if all organic beings may be explained.” ... “As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, is by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with it’s dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.” *
171 “Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed.”
174 “And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.”* ... “Thus, from the way of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from some simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved”*
213 “The ancestors of man were, no doubt, inferior in intellect, and probably in social disposition, to the lowest existing savages ... And as natural selection arising from the competition of tribe with tribe, in some large area as one of these, together with the inherited effects of habit, would, under favorable conditions, have sufficed to raise man to his present high position in the organic scale.”
249 “I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as irreligious; but he who denounced them is bound to show why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower form, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws or ordinary reproduction. The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance. The understanding revolts as such a conclusion, whether or not we are able to believe that every slight variation of structure, — the union of each pair in marriage,— the dissemination Id each seed,— and other such events, have all been ordained for some special purpose.”
108 “can adapt organic beings to his own uses”
118 “Thus I can understand how a flower and a bee might slowly become, either simultaneously or one after the other, modified and adapted in the most perfect manner to each other, by the continued preservation of individuals presenting mutual and slightly favorable deviations of structure.” ... “Natural selection can act only by the preservation and accumulation of infinitesimally small inherited modifications, each profitable to the preserved being; and as modern geology has almost vanished such views as the excavation of a Greta valley by a single diluvial wave, so will natural selection, if it be a true principle, banish the belief of the continued creation of new organic beings, or if any great and sudden modification in their structure.”
133-135 variation, inheritance, “sexual selection will give its aid to ordinary selection, by assuring to the most vigorous and best adapted males the greatest number of offspring ... Natural selection, also, leads to the divergence of character, for more loving beings can be supported in the same area the more they diverge in structure, habits, and constitution ... the more diversified these defendants become, the better will be their chance of succeeding in the battle of life ... Natural selection, as has just been remarked, leads to divergence if character and to much extinction of the less improved and intermediate forms of life. On these principles, I believe, the nature of the affinities if all organic beings may be explained.” ... “As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, is by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with it’s dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.” *
171 “Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed.”
174 “And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.”* ... “Thus, from the way of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from some simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved”*
213 “The ancestors of man were, no doubt, inferior in intellect, and probably in social disposition, to the lowest existing savages ... And as natural selection arising from the competition of tribe with tribe, in some large area as one of these, together with the inherited effects of habit, would, under favorable conditions, have sufficed to raise man to his present high position in the organic scale.”
249 “I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as irreligious; but he who denounced them is bound to show why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower form, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws or ordinary reproduction. The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance. The understanding revolts as such a conclusion, whether or not we are able to believe that every slight variation of structure, — the union of each pair in marriage,— the dissemination Id each seed,— and other such events, have all been ordained for some special purpose.”
April 1, 2007
I picked up this anthology for a class but I found myself reading a lot more than was assigned. While the excerpts from Darwin's own writings are useful, I like the anthology for its excellent selection of supplementary texts, which cover Darwin's profound influence in a number of fields from the publication of The Origin of Species to the present. The selections on the conflict of science and religion are not only relevant, but quite fascinating.
February 21, 2008
It's kind of interesting to read the "Origin of Species" because it is talked up to be this beacon of scientific light. And I'm sure it was at the time, but now that we have scientific information that is much more updated (and let's face it, a lot less racist), Origin of Species seems a little silly and also slightly religious. I felt the same way about "Descent of Man." I guess you just have to keep in mind that Darwin, like all other authors in the 19th century, was a man of his time.
October 11, 2008
I really like Darwin, what can I say? The Darwin reader has selections of Darwin's most important works (Descent of Man & Origin of Species) as well as contemporary reactions. Plus, all sorts of essays/reactions from scholars and prominent figures since then.
August 24, 2009
I'm reading the Second Edition (1979) of this famous Norton Critical Edition (NCE)of selections from Darwin's work, plus numerous essays about Darwin's work, which comprise the majority of the book. Norton's Critical Edition series is one of my favorite formats.
June 16, 2010
Only 200 pp of this 700 pp work is by Darwin. But Appleman has put together an excellent selection of pieces about Darwin from his contemporaries up to ours. Read about Charlie on this, the 200th anniversary of his birth. (201st now!)
December 5, 2007
very good anthology of readings . . . . . . . .
May 17, 2008
I only read snippets here an there but, from what I could tell, it's a great little comprehensive collection, especially if you're into Darwin and the history of Evolution.
March 29, 2009
Like other books available in the Norton Critical Edition series, this one provides very important secondary material. Excellent!
June 29, 2009
On the Origin of species was much better than I thought it would be. Not polarizing or condescending, but often beautifully written.
November 18, 2009
Given to my by Kyle Sterup
January 19, 2010
While I don't agree with most of it, it is a classic well worth reading.
November 20, 2020
Fascinating introduction to Darwin. Only on page 100, but it is great so far. I will make you want to read Beagle and Origin.
March 14, 2007
Good selection from 'Origin,' plus some fun 'Voyage of the Beagle.' Good biographical materials.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews