Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Penguin Classics (1989), Edition: Abridged, Paperback, 448 pages
Description
An account of the five years that English naturalist Charles Darwin spent traveling around the world on the HMS Beagle, a voyage that led him to develop his theory of the evolution of the species.
User reviews
LibraryThing member NeilRoyMcFarlane
I didn't find this book tedious at all (as one reviewer below did). I found it enthralling from beginning to end.
Here is a young man setting out on a five-year voyage (not a quick return flight to the Costa del Sol then) to places where most of the locals have never strayed beyond 10 miles of
If it were me, I'd have been socialising with the people and chasing the local girls, but this guy is absolutely focused on one question: what is all this life everywhere, and how can I better understand it?
So yes, the book can be tedious on one level, but the enthralling part is getting inside the mind of this man who some would claim as the greatest man in history, the first man to actually understand what we are and where we came from.
Here is a young man setting out on a five-year voyage (not a quick return flight to the Costa del Sol then) to places where most of the locals have never strayed beyond 10 miles of
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their homes. The amazing thing is, Darwin lands on some out-of-the-way place where the locals are usually delighted to welcome this intrepid Englishman with free food and lodgings simply to hear stories about the world, and Darwin wants nothing more than to get out of there to look at beetles and fallen rocks and speculate about how they came to be there. If it were me, I'd have been socialising with the people and chasing the local girls, but this guy is absolutely focused on one question: what is all this life everywhere, and how can I better understand it?
So yes, the book can be tedious on one level, but the enthralling part is getting inside the mind of this man who some would claim as the greatest man in history, the first man to actually understand what we are and where we came from.
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LibraryThing member iayork
For the Serious Darwin Fan Only: Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle is an interesting, but often tedious detail of his journey around the world. With this in mind, I would have to recommend this book to the Darwin enthusiast and to those who are just looking for a deeper grasp of Darwin, the man. It's
With this disclaimer, the book really does offer insight into Darwin and why this journey would be such a critical point in his life. Darwin is incredibly observant, and details flora and fauna throughout with sometimes discouraging detail. But this fact just gives us a clue as to what made this man different from all the other preeminent scientists of the day. Why did Darwin fully get evolution while the others didn't? Certainly this incredible power to really see things provided him with evidence that others might have missed.
My favorite parts would have to be Darwin's description of his time in the inside of South America and his interactions with the people living there. His reactions were varied. He often voices disgust at the barbarism of the settlers towards the Indians in the wars that occur there, while simultaneously describing the Indians as savages with terrible habits. Overall, however, he seems impressed with South America from the classical liberal point of view, saying "It is impossible to doubt that the extreme liberalism of these countries, must ultimately lead to good results." It would be interesting to see what Darwin would think of South America today. Throughout the book he adamately denounces the slavery sees with a keen insight, saying of an escaped slave woman who killed herself rather than be reenslaved, "In a Roman matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom: in a poor negress it is mere brutal obstinancy." Darwin was ahead of his time in this respect.
The part of the book covering his time in the Galapagos is surprisingly short, at least in respect to the emphasis Darwin later put on his time in the islands. It's also interesting to consider Darwin's reaction to them (he thought they were ugly and barren) when considering the impact the diversity of species on the islands played in his evidence for evolution.
All in all, the book has really good, insightful things to pick up, but other parts, such as Darwin's lengthy description of the masses of tiny floating sea creatures, I could have done without. Pick it up if you are really looking to put together a really complete picture of Darwin's life, with tedious details included.
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not for anyone looking for a quick, easy, or particularly exciting or sensationalist read. If that's what you're looking for, I recommend Cyril Aydon's biography. With this disclaimer, the book really does offer insight into Darwin and why this journey would be such a critical point in his life. Darwin is incredibly observant, and details flora and fauna throughout with sometimes discouraging detail. But this fact just gives us a clue as to what made this man different from all the other preeminent scientists of the day. Why did Darwin fully get evolution while the others didn't? Certainly this incredible power to really see things provided him with evidence that others might have missed.
My favorite parts would have to be Darwin's description of his time in the inside of South America and his interactions with the people living there. His reactions were varied. He often voices disgust at the barbarism of the settlers towards the Indians in the wars that occur there, while simultaneously describing the Indians as savages with terrible habits. Overall, however, he seems impressed with South America from the classical liberal point of view, saying "It is impossible to doubt that the extreme liberalism of these countries, must ultimately lead to good results." It would be interesting to see what Darwin would think of South America today. Throughout the book he adamately denounces the slavery sees with a keen insight, saying of an escaped slave woman who killed herself rather than be reenslaved, "In a Roman matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom: in a poor negress it is mere brutal obstinancy." Darwin was ahead of his time in this respect.
The part of the book covering his time in the Galapagos is surprisingly short, at least in respect to the emphasis Darwin later put on his time in the islands. It's also interesting to consider Darwin's reaction to them (he thought they were ugly and barren) when considering the impact the diversity of species on the islands played in his evidence for evolution.
All in all, the book has really good, insightful things to pick up, but other parts, such as Darwin's lengthy description of the masses of tiny floating sea creatures, I could have done without. Pick it up if you are really looking to put together a really complete picture of Darwin's life, with tedious details included.
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LibraryThing member piefuchs
I read this book when we were Chile, following in some of his footsteps. A wonder travelogue, and a great place to enjoy this book!
LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
This travelogue details Darwin's famous journeys from one side of the globe to the other. Although it is very technical, to the point of being hard to understand, this still offers glimmer of Darwin's genius and should be accompanied reading along with his Origin of Species. This is definitely
3.25 stars.
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worth it for enthusiasts and intellectuals alike.3.25 stars.
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Physical description
448 p.; 5.08 inches
ISBN
014043268X / 9780140432688
Similar in this library
The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin