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Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography (Books That Changed the World)

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I had expected much more from Janet Browne, famed Darwin biographer, from her book Darwin's "Origin of Species": A Biography. While the book itself is very readable (I read it in one sitting), it's too superficial a treatment of Charles Darwin's monumental tome On the Origin of Species. As part of the Books That Shook the World series, it doesn't give the reader enough background on the social and scientific situation in Victorian England when the book was developed, written and finally published. So how would we know that it really "shook" the world then?

Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin's ideas, as well as Robert Chambers' Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation were mentioned briefly, but their differences with Charles Darwin's theory of Natural Selection wasn't fleshed out. Neither was Darwin's development of his central arguments tackled in any appreciable degree. Browne mentioned Darwin's reliance on Malthus, but again, it was only discussed in brief.

I cannot recommend Browne's book except to those who are just beginning their study of Darwin. Instead, I recommend Nildes Eldredge's Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life. It also tackles the development of Darwin's book, but with more detail.

Simple me, I enjoyed the book tremendously. I was impressed by the author's ability to cover so much territory in so little space (the book is, in the end, a biography of both Darwin and Darwinism). Even condensed, it reads well. The last chapter, on the fate of Darwinism after his death, did seem a little rushed, but it was all so new to me that I was happy to have it, rather than nothing at all. This is, after all, an introductory book, and after you have read it, you can look elsewhere for something more substantial. You should judge a book by what it sets out to do, not by what you would do if you were the author.

When it comes to Darwin and Darwin-related issues, I have found Janet Browne's works to be outstanding contributions. Her two volume biography of Darwin is commanding in its mastery of the pertinent materials; a legacy in part of her many years working on the Darwin Correspondence project. For those of us on this side of the Atlantic, the good news is that she was recently appointed Professor of the History of Science at Harvard, leaving her long-time perch at the Wellcome Institute in London. In addition to being definitive, her books and articles are just a pleasure to read--here is Darwin at the height of his powers doing significant work and leading a happy and productive upper-class Victorian scientific life.

This is one out of a series of short books entitled "Books That Changed the World." It is yet another example of the recent trend toward concise volumes (this one runs 174 pages including index) that, despite their brevity, cram in a tremendous amount of useful information. After a brief introduction, the first two chapters are mini-biographies of Darwin prior to publication of the "Origin." As always, Browne is interested on the books and ideas (Lyell, Malthus, etc.) that shaped Darwin's own perspective. Since Browne knows more about Darwin than anyone else, these brief chapters are rich indeed in insight and perception--small gems. Next, Browne moves on to the actual publication of the "Origin" and the Victorian intellectual framework into which it was released. The controversy the book unleashed is covered in the next chapter, perhaps the longest and surely the most concentrated in the book. If anything, too much information is included here, especially for readers new to Darwin and Victorian science, and it is covered rather quickly. The final chapter deals with developments occurring from Darwin's death up until virtually the present, particularly in genetics and other scientific developments ultimately upholding Darwin's thesis.

The book includes brief notes and a short bibliography, as well as a fine index. "Origin of Species" did indeed "change the world" and this fine introduction hopefully will facilitate greater and wider understanding of Darwin's enormous contribution to science and our understanding of the world we inhabit.

Review of Darwin's Origins of Species: Books that Changed the World

By Janet Browne

As the foremost historian on scientist and evolutionary thinker Charles Darwin, Janet Browne successfully writes an accessible and vivid "biography", or account of the past and continued development of the man's most influential work On the Origin of Species, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, first published in 1859. Her book adequately fits the niche of a "popular science" type novel, great for an introduction to the topic or overview of general ideas,.

In this straight-forward, elegantly written historical biography, Browne documents not only the history of Origin, but of Darwin as well. Structurally, the book is divided into five sections, beginning with Darwin's childhood, then a discussion of the influential ideas, then the publication, then the controversy surrounding the publication, and most uniquely, a section on the legacy of the scientific treatise. Throughout these sections, Browne does a fine job balancing the narrative of Darwin, such as the anecdote involving chemistry labs and his brother, Erasmus, with an explanation of the scientific ideas, such as the explanation of Lyell, and then Darwin's gradualism.

What is most noticeable and influential in the environment that Janet Browne paints Darwin growing up is the Victorian society, in which "apes or angels, Darwin or the Bible" and revolution were the questions of the day, and other great thinkers (the work of his contemporaries and predecessors significantly influence his thinking, often making it difficult to understand why Darwin was unique and not just an extension of previous thoughts), such as Lyell and Marx. Origin was received during a time when big questions were being asked, and it seemed to provide an answer that not everyone was ready for yet. In fact, on some questions, Darwin was noticeably silent, in particular he avoided the discussion of human origins and of divine presence in the natural world.

One of the Browne's greatest strengths is to compare Darwin and Darwin's work with other contemporary thinkers and their ideas. For example, Browne's comparison of anonymous author Robert Chambers of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation and Darwin of Origins in the second section highlighted not only the need for Darwin to acknowledge the influences of other great thinkers of his time, but also his ability to also be highly critical of them in order to make his own work better, "obsessively, he began to build up his own edifice of dependable factual information that would be so much admired when he eventually published Origin of Species, and which life his book far above the ordinary".

Browne made numerous observations that were especially interesting to me. For one, she discusses the difficulty of vocabulary that Darwin encountered in writing his work, "the language he had to hand was the language of Milton and Shakespeare, steeped in teleology and purpose, not the objective, value-free terminology sought by science", certainly factors that could influence the reception and perceived validity of his work. I also enjoyed her critical analysis of the structure of the book, offering an explanation for the "Difficulties of the theory" chapter that Darwin includes, one that she believes makes the Origin an honest account. Having read from numerous other biographies that Emma, Darwin's wife, was a great force in censoring some of his religious ideas, I was pleased to read that Emma helped with editing the book in a value-free way.

Overall, Browne paints an exceedingly positive picture of Darwin. Unlike the boy of childhood academic woes and troubles that we see in even his own autobiography, Browne describes Darwin's studies at Edinburgh as such, "after a diligent start, sixteen-year-old Darwin found the realities of early nineteenth-century medicine upsetting. Two `very bad' operations, one on a child, convinced him he would never make a doctor and he left in 1827". In later chapters, she does not depict him as ambitious or competitive with other great thinkers, though other correspondences and works, have shown differently. While we may want to think of and worship Darwin as a heroic, all-good figure, this would be false adoration. More accurately, and perhaps more realistically, we should recognize Darwin as human, with faults and weaknesses just like the rest of us.

Janet Browne's Darwin's Origin of Species: Books That Changed the World is a well-written and well-rounded introductory book to the study of his life and major work, though suffers from an exceedingly positive picture and may leave readers thirsting for more about his scientific theory.

Fifty five per cent of Americans believe that God created people in their present form. It is as if Darwin, and his Origin of Species published in 1859, had never existed. In this context, Janet Browne's `biography' of Darwin's book is a necessary, and skilful, examination of the man and the science which is still at the centre of a heated political struggle.

Darwin, says Browne, was no godless radical out to subvert the system. He was a highly respectable gentleman in Victorian England, ensconced in inherited private wealth and aiming at indulging his hobby of natural history through a comfortable niche as an Anglican clergyman.

The British Navy surveying ship, the Beagle, soon changed that ambition and the young naturalist on board firmed up the idea that an entirely natural process of small changes over much time could create new species, without the supernatural agency of God.

Darwin also borrowed the Malthusian social theory that society operated as a `struggle for existence', applying it to a struggle in nature which results in `natural selection' through the survival of more offspring better adapted to their environment.

Darwin, however, delayed going public with his theory for twenty years, a hesitation, says Browne, influenced by the political context in which a vigorous working class movement for political and economic rights in the 1830s and 1840s had filled England's rulers with an intense fear of revolution, including any challenge to an ideological status quo which rested heavily on the `natural theology' of the Anglican Church which asserted that God had designed every bit of the natural, and social, world to run on pre-ordained lines.

Evolution, however, was a subversive, materialist theory whose scientific logic inferred that God had nothing to do with nature - far from God making Man in his own image, we owed our origins to hairy apes and, even further back, bacteria. If evolution was in the air, could revolution be far behind, fretted those of wealth and power.

Darwin, a principled scientist but no atheist or revolutionary, handled his dilemma by public procrastination which was only partly from a proper concern for scientific caution (he dallied for over a decade with more observational experiments with pigeons, and busied himself with an eight year study of barnacles) but fear of evolution's political implications also kept him silent.

Darwin's hand was forced by Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist (and socialist) from the opposite end of the social scale, who independently arrived at the same theory as Darwin resulting in a joint announcement of the theory of evolution in 1858. Darwin's Origin of Species followed in 1859.

The cat was now out of the bag. Rather than God the master designer, it was change, chance, imperfection and a deadly competition for survival which ruled through natural processes. Darwin, however, was a reluctant revolutionary so he still spoke guardedly of a Creator who set the whole show running (although playing no active role in subsequent biological proceedings) and he said nothing about the highly charged issue of the animal origins of human beings.

Darwin left it to others to aggressively confront the social and religious status quo and to apply evolutionary theory to human pre-history - only in 1871 did Darwin venture to show our ape ancestry with the publication of Descent of Man, when some of the heat had gone out of the controversy.

The main scientific deficiency of the book is that Darwin could not explain the biological mechanism behind his theoretical breakthrough of an explanatory cause (natural selection) for evolution. The science of genetics was a long way off and this resulted in "factual overkill" in the book, relying heavily on the towering weight of observational example.

There was a political deficiency, too. Darwin's subsequent application of biology to culture, says Browne, opened a door for political conservatives to reconcile themselves with Darwin. Darwin reinforced beliefs in the innate, biological origins of racial differences (despite his abhorrence of slavery) and male superiority (allegedly honed by aeons of hunting and fighting).

This melded with the vogue for `survival of the fittest' rhetoric, a phrase publicly adopted by Darwin in 1869, and the catchcry of manufacturers, financiers and colonisers. To these victors in the competitive class struggle went the spoils. Browne lists the long roll-call of `Social Darwinists' to the present day - the imperialists, genocidists, anti-welfare state ideologues, segregationists, eugenicists, sociobiologists, `race' scientists - who all had it in for those they saw as the socially `unfit', condemned to discrimination (or extermination) by modern scientific `law'.

Although Browne could have more thoroughly explored post-Darwin scientific developments in evolution (such as those of Stephen Jay Gould who has credibly challenged Darwin's belief in evolutionary `gradualism' and `progress' as well as Darwin's ideological, Malthusian underpinnings), Browne rightly shares with other socially responsible scientists a celebration of the spectacular and truly revolutionary transformation of science and society that Darwin's book represented.

Much like David Quammen's _The Reluctant Mr. Darwin_ (2006) and Edward J. Larson's _Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory_ (2004), Harvard historian of science Janet Browne's _Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography_ (2007, `Books That Changed the World' series, which also includes the Bible, the Qur'an, Smith's _Wealth of Nations_, Plato's _Republic_, Paine's _Rights of Man_, and Marx's _Das Kapital_) serves, I think, as a great introductory book on the topic of Darwin and evolution (for either lay persons wishing to become familiar with the topic or for undergraduate level courses in the history of science or biology). I wrote of Larson's book before for a history of modern science course:

"Edward J. Larson's _Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory_ is a wonderful compact book that does well to relate the social, cultural and political forces at work through the past two centuries of evolutionary thought. It is simple and broad, and Larson's non-scientific prose adds to it being a great book for an introduction to Darwin, evolutionary theories, and the conflicts and successes the idea of evolution has endured."

Browne's book better fits this description, for it adds more readable prose and unlike Larson's book, does not contain a wealth of grammatical errors. Of course, at only 153 pages, Browne's book hits some topics well (Darwin's life and work) while passing over others quickly (creationism in the late 20th century). Unlike Quammen, Browne does discuss the _Beagle_ voyage, then moves on to the period of Darwin's work from 1836 to 1859, when _On the Origin of Species_ was published. The remainder of the book tells of the influence (or lack thereof) that Darwin's evolutionary theory has had on both the sciences and society. Now I will mention particular points in her book that I liked. Browne brings up the debate about whether or not Darwin delayed in publishing _On the Origin of Species_ for fear of ridicule and criticism from the religious community. This debate in the history of science has been most recently discussed by Cambridge historian of science John van Wyhe ( "Mind the gap: did Darwin avoid publishing his theory for many years?" _Notes & Records of the Royal Society_ 61 (2007): 177-205). Browne reiterates van Wyhe's claim that "Darwin's Delay" is a historical myth, and that instead of a delay Darwin was using the time for research (especially on barnacles) and experimentation - in essence, Darwin wanted to know that he had it right before he published his theory. Browne writes:

"Nowadays, in the light of all that is known about his personality and correspondence, it seems feasible to suggest that a strong commitment to scientific accuracy and a proper sense of scientific caution were at least as high in his mind as any fear of the consequences of publication." (p. 50)

And:

"Historians tend to smile at so much time spent on insignificant organisms [8 years on barnacles] and call it a sideline, a delaying tactic in order that Darwin might avoid confronting the furore that would arise out of publishing his other more wide-ranging evolutionary views... What he found in barnacles, however, brought important shifts in his biological understanding, strengthened his belief in evolution and provided an essential backdrop to Origin of Species." (p. 54)

Browne also explains in several instances how Darwin did not single-handedly rid God from society or how he cannot be attributed to racism, eugenics, or genocide, as is often the case that creationists attempt to make. If Darwin and his work are responsible for these atrocities to humanity, they argue, then we must dismiss the theories. However, we never hear of anyone attempting to dismantle chemistry because of the consequences of the atomic bomb droppings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That humanity can apply science to its wishes for how they think the world ought to be should bear no claim on the validity of that science. As much as science changes based on new observations, evidence, etc., science is how we understand our world, a way of knowing. How we take that understanding and use it to change the world is different. Jared Diamond used geographical factors to explain how human races came to be where they are today (politically, economically, etc.) in _Guns, Germs, and Steel_. What Diamond misses, however, is that although whites historically have had scientific and technological advantages over the rest of the world because of the geography of where they lived, there was still a conscious human decision behind the acts of colonialism, slavery, genocide, etc., and this decision was based on a constructed division of savage versus civilized man. Many miss a similar point when it comes to Darwin - although people used his theories to support their racist, eugenic, and colonial actions, Darwin cannot be attributed to starting these lines of thinking.

Browne writes that "racism and genocide predated Darwin" (p. 12) and that "Darwin's _Origin of Species_ can hardly account for all the racial sterotyping, nationalist fervour and harshly expressed prejudice tot be found in the years to come" (p. 108). She notes, however, that _On the Origin of Species_ became a tool to support this thinking: "there can be no denying the impact of providing a biological backing for human warfare and notions of racial superiority"(p. 108), or "evolutionary views, and then the new science of genetics, gave powerful biological backing to those who wished to partition society according to ethnic difference or promote white supremacy" (p. 128). In regards to the impact Darwin had on religion, Browne reminds us that "[a]nxious doubts, secular inclinations and dissatisfaction with conventional doctrines were launched among intellectuals long before Darwin came on to the scene" (p. 63). Also, Darwin's theories hardly cast doubt on a literal belief in Genesis:

"Learned biblical study since the Enlightenment had encouraged Christians increasingly to regard the early stories as potent metaphors rather than literal accounts. Biblical fundamentalism is mostly a modern concern, not a Victorian one. The real challenge of Darwinism for Victorians was that it turned life into an amoral chaos displaying no evidence of a divine authority or any sense of purpose or design." (p. 86)

As a history of science student, I have learned to see how social, cultural, political, and religious factors contribute to science, and how science in turn can affect these institutions. A "rather modern combination of manufacturing affluence, gentlemenly social standing, religious scepticism and cultivated background," Browne writes, "ensured that Darwin always had a place in upper middle-class society and the prospect of a comfortable inheritance, both of which served as very material factors in his later achievements" (p. 10). If factors about his life enabled Darwin to be the meticulous, detailed scientist (amateur or not) he was, then his science was influenced by the society in which he lived, for no one could "fail to notice the way that Darwin's biology mirrored the British nation in all its competitive, entrepreneurial, factory spirit" (p. 67). Marx wrote to Friedrich Engels in 1862:

"It is remarkable how Darwin rediscovers, among the beasts and the plants, the society of England with its division of labour, competition, opening of new markets, `inventions' and Malthusian `struggle for existence'... in Darwin, the animal kingdom figures as civil society."

Browne also touches on smaller aspects about Darwin's life and work that I find interesting. It is too often said that the first printing of _On the Origin of Species_ sold out it's first day (see Larson, p. 88). A reader would assume, then, that the public went out and snatched up copies of the book like they do now with the Harry Potter books. Browne corrects this assumption (as does Quammen [p. 174]) by stating on the very first page that it "sold out to the book trade on publication day" (p. 10). The importance of writing letters was crucial for Darwin in his gathering of information and facts for his developing theories:

"Without this extraordinary correspondence... Darwin's theory would have sunk. In this he was materially helped by the rapid development of the Victorian postal system, brought to a peak of efficiency by Rowland Hill from the 1840s and 1850s, and the expanding infrastructure of empire." (p. 8)

Browne would know, of course, of the importance of correspondence to Darwin, a sedentary naturalist. She worked on the early volumes of Darwin's correspondence. She also gives a brief account of the work of Darwin's colleague and friend, the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, who also made use of international correspondence. Hooker was a naturalist and administrator (of Kew Gardens) who was "aimed at the empire of botany" (p. 91). Hooker's career attests to the connection between science and society, with Kew Gardens playing an important role in British colonial expansion (economic botany or colonial botany). Recently published is historian of science Jim Endersby's book, _Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the practices of Victorian science_ (University of Chicago Press, 2008). Finally, I enjoyed the reference to the distinction between field and laboratory biology, which I read a little about when I did my paper on Darwin and his seed germination experiments. Browne has a way with words so that in a sentence or two she can sum up a concept for the reader:

"By the last decade of the nineteenth century their aim was not to catalogue dead animals and plants but to understand the inner workings of living, breathing bodies - a self-conscious conceptual break from the past. This new attitude to biology reflected a major move away from observational natural history towards a more experimental, laboratory-based form of investigation, a move that can be seen taking place in almost all of the sciences at the time. Traditional natural history, of course, did not stop; it became sidelined, sometimes regarded as the province of amateur naturalists, or otherwise reconstituted as new sciences of animal behaviour, ecology and environmentalism. Like physics and chemistry, biology was becoming something that was primarily practised indoors, in a lab, under controlled conditions, and increasingly with the financial aid of government agencies." (p. 132)

Overall, I liked Browne's book, better than Larson's but not quite as much as Quammen's. I would have preferred some consistency in the title of Darwin's "one long argument." Browne goes back and forth between _Origin of Species_, _On the Origin of Species_, or just plainly _Origin_. This is merely a minor detail, but I like consistency. Browne tells us that an illustration Thomas Henry Huxley's _Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature_ comparing ape skeletons with that of a human is the "first pictorial representation of evolution" and "has since become as iconic as the double helix of DNA" (p. 97). Probably more iconic is Darwin's illustration of a branching tree from one of his transmutation notebooks (notebook B, 1837), which predates Huxley's image. Maybe Huxley's is a picture whereas Darwin's is a diagram, I don't know. But even Darwin was not the first to draw a tree of life, for Lamarck had such a sketch in his _Philosophie Zoologique_ (1809). See Mark Wheelis, "Darwin: Not the First to Sketch a Tree," _Science_ 315 (February 2, 2007): 597. Unfortunately, Wheelis attributes Darwin's tree to an 1868 notebook.

Janet Browne's Darwin's Origin of Species is an unusual Darwin biography in that it is as much about the the Origin of Species and its impact as it is about the author himself. Browne is out to convince the reader that the creation and publication of the Origin is the tale of the modern world coming into existence. A lofty goal, indeed, but Browne pulls it off wonderfully, crafting a thorough and concise account of the history of the ideas behind Darwin's seminal work while maintaining a neutral yet impassioned voice.

Browne's book is very much the story of Darwin's world and the Origin's role in leading it into modernization. 19th century English society was unabashedly Victorian and increasingly industrialized. This environment of transition was ripe for the introduction of Darwin's ideas, as both shared the mantras of specialization, diversification, and improvement. Religion, while a crucial pillar of Darwin's society at the time, was being chipped away by an emerging contingent of philosophers questioning the validity of the Old Testament and creationism. The Origin-centric approach to this particular Darwin biography gives the book a great amount of focus. Details in Darwin's early life that seem cobbled together in other Darwin biographies come together in fascinating ways when discussed in context of the Origin, effectively showing how Darwin's life influenced the creation of the Origin. The book begins by retracing Darwin's upbringing as part of the financially secure intelligentsia of Britain before moving on to Darwin's formative years at Cambridge. During that time he cultivated his love for geology and encountered the pervasive influence of theology, two influences that repeatedly show up in the Origin. Similarly, Browne elaborates on the voyage on the Beagle's merits as a character-building experience, allowing Darwin to develop the independence and his observation skills as a naturalist later needed to flesh out the nuances of the Origin.

This focus extends to the middle chapters of the book, where Browne summarizes the literature regarding the development, publication, and argument of the Origin. She hits all of the main points of contention, exploring the influence of Paley and Malthus while offering commentary on Darwin's delay and the controversy regarding Alfred Wallace Russell. Her systematic reduction of the argument within the Origin is nicely done as well, breaking it down into its core principles of excessive numbers of very different offspring, the mechanism of natural selection, and the principle of divergence as well as addressing many of the common controversies surrounding the book like the rejection of the church and the lack of man's special status.

Browne's book is also notable for its distillation of the legacy of the Origin, offering a nicely condensed version of the key events that led Darwinism out of obscurity in the 20th century. During the late 19th and early 20th century Darwin's ideas were countered by many scientists who found the paleontological evidence wanting, his ideas of selection incomplete. But there were scientists in the early 20th century that worked hard to draw the connections between Mendelian inheritance and Darwinian thought. In this regard Browne does a much better job than her contemporaries like Quammen in exploring the resurgence of Darwinism, detailing the role of Sewell Wright's population genetics and G.G. Simpson's explanation for the gaps in the fossil record in achieving the modern synthesis that arguably reshaped the field of biology into evolutionary biology.

Yet it is Browne's reverent and accessible writing style that elevates her content above other Darwin biographies. Throughout the book she manages to maintain brevity while sacrificing very little in terms of intellectual integrity or sufficient exploration of key issues. Browne's description of Darwin's writing in the Origin as "dazzling, persuasive, friendly" very well applies to the quality of writing at work in her book. I was genuinely surprised by how much her passion for Darwin's work contributed to her book's readability, as it is a legitimate page-turner. Admittedly, this affectionate writing style also means that the rough edges of Darwin's personality are smoothened over more than they should be, drawing attention away from the less savory personality tics like the pride that emerged in controversies like the Wallace publishing fiasco. But the reverence never crosses the line into idolatry; at the end of the day, Browne is just genuinely passionate about discussing Darwin's contribution to the modernization of society and science, and the biography as a whole benefits greatly from it.

While other biographies may be more comprehensive or controversial, Browne's considerable abilities as a writer and her undeniable admiration for Darwin makes this work a truly enjoyable read, regardless of prior knowledge of Darwin. As far as introductions go, Darwin's Origin of Species is definitely the work to beat for anyone new to the life and works of Charles Darwin.

Very high-level overview of Darwin's life, with The Book as the centerpiece. I've read the "Origin," and I've read my Stephen Jay Gould, so there wasn't anything here I didn't know already--but as a high-level overview of the topic for a college course covering the whole 19th century, it's plenty good enough. Oh, every now and then I catch Browne getting a small detail wrong, but not enough to compromise the big picture (the Piltdown jaw and skull were found associated but not actually attached, that kind of thing).

If you already know your history of Darwin, this is not for you: just a couple of stars' worth--SJG is more interesting to read, and there are those small errors of detail. But for a college sophomore in my daughter's situation, it's a pretty good book for learning Darwin's biography and his theory quickly and well within a course covering a much larger subject.

Favourite quote: "Privately, he [Charles Lyell] felt unable to go as far as Darwin in believing that human beings were entirely natural organisms.... Once he told Huxley that he 'could not go the whole orang.'"

didnt expect that many highlighting in the book but overall not a bad sale b+

Having recently read The Autobiography of Charles Darwin and The Voyage of the Beagle, I found that Janet Browne's book Darwin's Origin of Species did not greatly enhance my knowledge of Charles Darwin. Most of the facts and events of Darwin's life presented in the book are widely known and are included in other biographies. While Browne does a good job condensing the information from Darwin's works into a more readable format for the casual reader, I felt that analysis on Darwin's life was limited. I would have been more interested in Browne's thoughts on certain Darwin quotes than simply a regurgitation of the facts.

I found the book most interesting when Janet Browne provided a historical context for events in Darwin's life, as this were largely missing from his autobiography. Perhaps the best example of this is in Browne's description of Darwin's return to England after five years on the Beagle. She explains: "Darwin... could not help but notice how much England had changed. Railways were snaking across the land where stagecoaches had once travelled, towns crept relentlessly outwards, shops, chapels, and newly built churches sprouted everywhere. This was the England of Dickens's classic tales."