Customer Reviews

On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition

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Some idiot wrote a review of this book as if it were a contemporary scientific publication, as if Darwin were still alive to rewrite another edition! Darwin was a great writer who used his keen mind in communicating his ideas in English. It is interesting to contrast Darwin's writings to Freud's works, which were also presented as scientific, but haven't stood up to scrutiny nearly as well. Let us also apply some of the principles of selection to Amazon reviews. Feel free to review this book if you can appreciate both the historic and literary value of Dawrins works. Otherwise, please keep your opinions to yourself.

NOTE that this is a review of the Harvard University Press facsimile of the first edition of "On the Origin of Species" (intro by Ernst Mayr). This is NOT a commentary on Darwin's text.

I blithely bought and began reading the Modern Library's "Origin", then came across this facsimile of the first edition in the library. Hmm, I wondered. I used the quotations in the front of my copy to deduce that I was reading the sixth (and last) edition, rather than the first. While that, too, has its considerable interest in illustrating the twists and turns of Darwin's thought during those years, the evolution revolution was made by the first edition. As Ernst Mayr says in his introduction, "When we go back to the Origin, we want the version that stirred up the Western world, the first edition." Besides which, if one is going to do any historical research, one needs this edition, for contemporary references use the first edition's pagination.

But most importantly, this is the firstborn of Darwin's mind, long gestating, and contains his most confident and positive statement of his thesis. He had tried to anticipate all the major objections to his theory and answer them preemptively here. Still, at the time of this writing he had no critics, so the tone and content display none of that waffling that mar, to a certain extent, the final edition.

This volume was put together in 1964, and Ernst Mayr's introduction dates from that time. It is a good historical introduction to Darwin and his contribution, and some more specific remarks on the first edition, its general approach and some of its path-breaking arguments. Also included in the extra matter is a bibliography of Darwin's published works, plus current works on evolution, as of 1964. There is also a quite comprehensive index of the text, which should make the book considerably more usable to us than it was to Darwin's original readers.

My only gripe is that Harvard University Press only offers a paperback, although it used to have a hardcover edition. The paperback version is readable enough at 5.5 by 8.2 inches, yet it's too thick for its size, and, while definitely not of poor quality, vulnerable to the binding breakage typical of the breed, so serious scholars of the work might find themselves literally pulling it apart. For you and me, though, it should be just fine.

The 'Origin' went through six editions in Darwin's lifetime: the 1st and 6th are the only ones still reprinted. The 1st edition shows Darwin's thinking in its original form, before he began attempts to accommodate objections based on erroneous late-century ideas about the exact nature of heredity and the age of the Earth.

This Harvard reprint of the 1st edition, with a new cover just in time for the 150th anniversary of publications, comes complete with misprints [see p. 20 line 11 'speceies'] and a 'Just So' story [How the Bear Turned into a Whale, p. 184], and is Darwin's clearest statement of the Theory of Natural Selection. The introduction by Ernst Mayr is a major bonus as a precis of Darwin's theory and its impact on biology.

For it's price, it can be recommended over all other versions. Harvard has also issued another facsimile edition, with marginal notes by James Costa, that is valuable for the historian of ideas, and Quammen's illustrated edition [not a facsimile] is delightful.

The 6th edition has often been reprinted, on the notion that this must be the most highly developed form of the theory. It isn't, and gave us the unfortunate phrase 'survival of the fittest.' It shows up a lot in used book stores. If you're browsing, check the last sentence of the book: if it refers to 'the Creator', you're looking at the 6th edition, otherwise it's the 1st.

NB: Harvard first reprinted this in 1964, in hardcover. The binding wasn't that great. Interestingly, the original John Murray editions are not particularly well put together, though I did buy a copy of the 6th edition last summer at the International Palaeontology Congress. Holding the first edition isn't as big a thrill as you might expect: it's by no means a Gutenberg bible. Don't, as they say, judge a book by it's cover.

There is only one reason to read "On the Origin of Species" -- to discover how Darwin himself first articulated the most revolutionary scientific theory of all time. And to achieve this purpose there is only one means -- to read his original argument, set forth with the greatest force, clarity, and brevity in that very first edition published in 1859. So, unless you happen to have the $$$ to buy an actual first edition, this facsimile of the first edition is the *only* way to read Darwin: all other paperback "Origins" publish Darwin's latest edition.

But even if you are not interested in the history of biology (scoundrel!), and you think you'll learn complete evolutionary theory from the "Origin" (fool!), you should get this edition -- and *not* later ones. Darwin's later editions of the "Origin" contain many errors that are not found in the original edition, including especially a progressive weakening of his original argument (evolution by natural selection) by the importation of Lamarckism (evolution by the inheritance of acquired characters). In these later editions, Darwin had been convinced by blockhead, mystical *physicists* that his *geology* was wrong (as if!), so he had to speed up the timing of everything, which meant smuggling in Lamarckism.

Last, this volume contains an introduction from one of the most charming biologists and philosophers of all time -- Ernst Mayr. This intro alone is worth the price of the book.

This is a quick review of the book not a dissertation on Darwin or any other subject loosely related. At first I did not know what to expect. I already read " The Voyage of the Beagle: Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches". I figured the book would be similar. However I found "Origin" to be more complex and detailed.

Taking in account that recent pieces of knowledge were not available to Charles Darwin this book could have been written last week. Having to look from the outside without the knowledge of DNA or Plate Tectonics, he pretty much nailed how the environment and crossbreeding would have an effect on natural selection. Speaking of natural selection, I thought his was going to be some great insight to a new concept. All it means is that species are not being mucked around by man (artificial selection).

If you picked up Time magazine today you would find all the things that Charles said would be near impossible to find or do. Yet he predicted that it is doable in theory. With an imperfect geological record many things he was not able to find at the writing of this book have been found (according to the possibilities described in the book.)

The only draw back to the book was his constant apologizing. If he had more time and space he could prove this and that. Or it looks like this but who can say at this time. Or the same evidence can be interpreted 180 degrees different.

In the end it is worth reading and you will never look at life the same way again.

A lot of unanswered questions of Darwin's age have been answered today, but still one does not fail to see the genius behind the logical derivations and counterweighted arguments.

In this edition, Darwin expresses himself much more boldly than in the later editions, when he was countered and threatened by the dogmatic religious groups simply because it doesn't support 'their' theory.

(This is for the anti-theorists) A theory is always a theory, it can't be proven like a mathematical formula, it may have gaps in understanding, it may not be able to explain everything under the sun, but that does NOT provide a good reason to throw the whole theory out. For the ones attentive to the nuances, it is NOT a hypothesis, it's a theory, and in spite of not being provable by deductive logic, this provides a good insight on how the species might have evolved, and very interestingly, the role of mankind in it.

One of the reason behind my liking this book is that the author is aware of the weak areas and mentioned what kind of proofs (fossils and the like) would substanciate the theory, and in many cases such pieces of proof were found much afterwards. The book is really a masterpiece.

In the 1st edition of Origin, Darwin makes bolder statements that in later editions are watered down, undermined, or simply omitted. Read the original to find out why this is such an important work, why it created such a stir at the time, and why Darwin earned a place in our consciousness. Should be required reading of any student of life sciences. A little long and wordy for a popular audience, perhaps, but well worth the effort. Be sure to read The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins, as well.

A group of my students and I read this book this semester. During the discussion period for the final chapter, one of the students said, "I cried. This was the best book I have ever read." On the other hand, another student expressed great disappointment with the book. Another student quipped, "There weren't enough examples about pigeons." All in all, this book provides excellent food for thought today, just as it did 140 years ago when it was first published. I found Darwin's insights and synthesis of ideas, based on the accumulation of carefully collected observations combined with intellectual leaps to be inspiring. There are flaws in portions of the book to be sure, but this is a book that all biologists and biology students should have a chance to read and discuss. When you read it, make sure you read the entire book, discuss it with a friend or two as you read, and you can look forward to a perfect conclusion to this paradigm shifting book that continues to influence modern biological thought.

Tweaked my imagination and opened all kinds of doors. Our bookclub spent many hours hashing out ideas that this book explored. I put this on my recommend list.

A theory is not a fact. Darwin's theory prevents budding minds from challenging a flawed paradigm. As Chomsky, MIT University Professor, said: What Darwin achieved is of extraordinary importance, but there's nothing of a theory here. There's nothing much to teach. You can teach population genetics and Mendel and so on, but the explanatory force is limited. There's plausible descriptive accounts of why snails get bigger shells and so, but when you try to account for why particular organs develop, or species, and so on, all you can do is wave your hands. You say, "well, if something else had happened that wasn't functional the organism wouldn't have reproduced and would have died off."