Customer Reviews

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

OK, so clearly I was fooled by Amazon's practice of listing all reviews of a particular book regardless of edition. My mistake. The positive reviews this book has received are no doubt deserved, but this copy is unreadable. It is, as far as I can tell, a print-out of the public domain text, cheaply bound and so minimally formatted that italics are represented by _underscores_ and the right-hand margin is not even justified. The cover image isn't even correctly proportioned, which, given the original image, is pretty shocking in and of itself.

I can't believe Amazon are even selling this thing. It's a disgrace. I could have produced a better copy myself for less money! The text is in the public domain, so if you don't care what format it's in, just download it for free and print it out. Otherwise, go for the new edition which got such good reviews.

Ever since I received Paul EkmanÕs new edition of DarwinÕs classic work, the book has been my constant companion. I carry it with me from room to room, picking it up to read whenever I have a few minutes.

You can open to just about any page and discover yet another gem. Whether you find a bit to read by chance, or whether you like to be guided by the fascinating table of contents and index, or whether you prefer to begin at the beginning, Darwin is always interesting and accessible. In view of our troubled world, I find it helpful to remember that empathy is an essential part of human and animal nature. It seems the study of emotion must lead us toward a deeper understanding of these universal, powerful forces that energize and transform our lives.

ÒExpressionÓ is really an old friend. As a young dance therapist in the 1960s, I was impressed first by DarwinÕs ability to describe the dynamic process of expressive movement. Obviously it is the emotions that motivate and shape the way we move. I learned then that his observations were gathered over a period of 30 years. His subjects included not only all kinds of animals, but also human infants, children and adults from every walk of life and from many different cultures. He approached the study of emotional expression from the perspective of art, literature and inner experience, as well as from muscles and the nervous system. Although it was first published over 125 years ago (1872) DarwinÕs work continues to inspire and inform contemporary research in many fields.

The new edition is simply outstanding. Paul EkmanÕs editing is clearly a Òlabor of love,Ó and at the same time a thorough, original scholarly contribution. I particularly like the way he places DarwinÕs work in a cultural and social/political context. EkmanÕs commentary offers rich resources as he quietly updates, re-frames or differs, yet more than anything, confirms and extends DarwinÕs observations. It is as if Ekman and Darwin were engaged in a kind of dialogue, each learning from the other. Thereader is a privileged witness.

Joan Chodorow

This is the second book that I throw my serious students after I make them read the Voyage. While the subject is serious, there is more than a hint of play throughout, and one can just imagine Darwin observing his own children for clues to discuss as each chapter unfolds. Although this book is of course not nearly as important as the Origin or even Descent, it is essentially part of the Long Argument, and is a great way of bringing behavioural topics to the fore in any discussion of evolution. A pity it is that many modern popularizers of "evolutionary psychology" seem to have missed parts of the form and substance that Darwin expresses here.

Amazon has a weird policy of lumping together reviews for all the different editions of this book. The bound, Oxford University Press version, with commentary by Paul Ekman, is fantastic. None of the problems with other editions apply to the Ekman version. Don't be discouraged by the negative reviews - the Oxford edition will not disappoint. It has all the original text and photos, it is beautifully produced, and it includes lots of extras too in the form of Ekman's commentary and an essay on the famous illustrations.

This was a real disappointment. Nowhere, on the Amazon site, or in the book, does it indicate that this edition lacks all the photos of the original - which of course are crucial to the book. It's a cheap reprint (using underscore marks each side of a word to indicate that it is in italics in the original). Buy one of the new editions that will have it all.

PS the enthusiastic customer and general reviews attached to this item's amazon entry are not for this edition

i have the genuine oxford-published edition edited (etc) by paul ekman, and it is fantastic: great additons to and insights regarding this seminal text, nicely bound and printed. a first-rate book all around.

i'm not sure which edition(s) all the one-star reviewers are complaining about, but adding specifics to their reviews would definitely be helpful - especially in light of amazon's habit of mixing reviews for all editions of a book together, as one reviewer even points out (but then doesn't clarify).

so: oxford edition. accept no substitutes!

The book is absolutely fascinating. I just started reading it 2 days ago and am half way through it but the publisher left out some very significant stuff. For example: where are all the pictures that go with the material?? Nowhere to be found!!!! They've also omitted several passages from the text! How much? I have no idea! They break off in mid sentence to give notes and never come back to the sentence they were on!!!
I strongly recomend picking this book up just not from bibliobazar

This edition is difficult and almost impossible to read because of the total lack of any readable lay out. Fotnotes are inserted into the main text without any change of letter size. The quality is very poor - a photocopy of the original is much better. Do not buy this crappy edition. If you want to save money visit the Internet Archive instead for a free pdf.

This is the main contribution to interdisciplinary studies that converge in psychology and biology. It is a key piece inside Darwin `s work. If the well known decay of the compared psychology at the early years of the XX Century- when the evolutionism followers forgot about the behaviors and the psychologists did without anatomy and physiology- diminished briefly influence to the actual contributions, the culmination of the modern etiology has acted in favor for rediscover this extraordinary and even singular text.

What Darwin considers as true expressions are precisely, the reflexes and instincts that suppose not only the innate capacity to react of a determined way, but also the innate acknowledgement of that expression in the others.

A fundamental and unfairly not so known book that deserves to be recognized with major value.

I got this for new insights on my Animatronics work..

Interesting info...

A little work to unravel the old english terms...

MJL