Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Charles Darwin rushed his Origin to press when he became aware that he would be pre-empted with the theory of natural selection by Alfred Russell Wallace. In the course of the following few years he reviewed the manuscript thorougly at least twice. The Third edition is generally the standard. This facsimilie may be interesting for historical reasons, but I recommend the edition with Jilian Huxeley's introduction.

Many people assume that Darwin's initial account of natural selection is so out of date that it is to be avoided in favour of more recent text books of evolutionary theory. While it is true that huge gains have been made in the one and a half centuries since the first publication of "The Origin", there is nothing in this work which is wrong. Darwin was too good a scientist and too cautious.

Some claim that Darwin admitted of the possibility of Lamarkian mechanisms. They have not read the original. Darwin knew nothing of the molecular basis of genetics, but knew that natural selection did not need a Lamarkian mechanism. He simply did not rule it out, although he found it improbable. Everything that is stated in this great classic is as true today as it was at the time of first publication.

It is also said that Charles Darwin was a lesser intellectual when compared to most other great names of science; that he was a plodder, a naturalist, a sort of gentleman stamp collector who pressed flowers into his books and barely a scientist in the contemporary sense. This is nonsense. Darwin was one of the giants of rigorous systematic thinking; the kind of rigorous thinking and critical attitude that asks the right questions and provides the capacity to answer them. Let me buttress this claim with one example.

At the end of chapter six Darwin noted that the theory of natural selection could not account for structures or behaviors found in one species that exist solely for the benefit of another unrelated species. In setting out the theoretical terms for the refutation of the theory in this way, he anticipated Karl Popper, that analytical non-nonsense philosopher of science, by more than a century.

I recommend you read this book with an attentive curious analytical mind. You will find yourself walking in the footsteps of an intellectual giant.

Many love to read science whether it is the newest technological innovations for high definition TV's or we expose to learn more about the unified field theory or String Theory. Science leaves us with alot to explore. What is the scientific equivalent of Shakespeare's Folio's? Or perhaps Cervante's-Don Quioxte's? Many scientist may say Darwin's-Origin of Species. This fascimilie of the 1st edition which is full of elegent prose and vivid descriptions and analogies while later editions are less decisive and espouse more questions than answers is the edition to read. Which is a dated romantic language. So arguably the most important text written in English is also easy to read and understand with little thought primarily to Darwin clear use of prose. It is a book that has been most heavily criticised since its inception and publication in November 29, 1859 but it is now gaining the long overdue momentum accorded the works of Copernicus and Newton. Just bring your imagination along for the splendid ride.

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.

I rate this four stars for the binding, not the contents which should be five stars. For a much greater price one can get a finer binding, but if one wishes to read or review the 1859 edition that Darwin rushed into print in order to prevent another putting essentially the same theory forward ahead of him, this is the book. There were a number of additional editions printed during Darwin's lifetime, reflecting later thoughts, but to see his thinking as of 1859, this is a good, and relatively scarce book to own. The copy I received from Amazon does not contain an Introductory essay. The binding appears to be perfect bound, and is a hardback. Contents: 5 stars, Binding: 4 stars

The book itself isn't going to change- this isn't a review of the contents, but of how they are presented in this book. Since it is a 'facsimile' of the first edition (written in bold yellow on the spine) it is the same- page numbers, language, everything. What I found immediately odd was that the text is centered into a small portion, there is at least an inch all the way around of blank paper. Leading me to the conclusion that the book could be of smaller dimension. Also the binding seems to be too tight (this may just be my copy). The book doesn't lay flat, it opens up toward the outside, as if it needs more space. It kind of looks like a well worn paperback, but this is a hardcover. Also, because of the tightness, it's hard to read. The book always wants to close on me, quite a lot of pressure is needed to keep it open. I bought a different book and will be donating this copy.

Charles Darwin found his voice in this book. For all his tangled sentence structure and use of the passive voice, in the "Origin" his is a voice as one crying in the wilderness: a voice which desperately desires to be understood.

While it is true that Darwin largely developed his theory within a vacuum, (Thomas Henry Huxley and Charles Lyell, and later, of course, Alfred Russell Wallace, among other sympathetic figures were let into the game) it is clear from reading his treatise that many hypothetical critics loomed large in Darwin's imagination during the entire period of its long gestation, beginning in 1838 with the analysis of the specimens collected by the Beagle and ending with his hasty rush of this "Abstract of an Abstract" to print November 24, 1859 (it was a Thursday.)

For a confirmed bibliophile, it is a pleasure to read the serifed type font in which Victorian readers first thrilled (or were outraged) to the ideas therein contained. As if in a Jack Finney time-travel novel, one can find oneself transported back to 1859, when the first 1,500 copies of the Origin first pressed themselves into the Victorian mind. In such a reverie, one can cheer on Darwin in the pages of the Origin as if he were a contemporary of the modern reader. Which, from the point of view of deep evolutionary time, he is.