Customer Reviews

From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books (Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals)

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Darwin was not just a top-notch scientist but also a gifted author. He had a very lively mind, and he read everything, which means he had a gift for finding just the right example to illustrate his point. And he always tries to make his case with modesty and thoughtfulness, the best way to convince a skeptic.

This edition of Darwin's four most famous works is beautifully printed and physically attractive. It's also sturdily bound, a good idea given the huge page count. However, there are two aspects of this edition that I regret:

--The footnotes are all printed as endnotes, so you have to flip back and forth. (This seems so strange to me: any word processing program can handle footnotes without difficulty, so why can't publishers cope with them?)

--I also regret that the distinguished editor, E. O. Wilson, did not add his own footnotes. When I read Darwin's more speculative remarks, I'd like to know: "Did this pan out; was Darwin in fact right on this point?". The books would benefit greatly from follow-up remarks, in light of the huge progress made in evolutionary theory since Darwin's day. Wilson's own vast knowledge would have made him an ideal candidate to provide such commentary.

But don't let my quibbles deter you. These books are deeply inspiring and very much worth your time.

I know of at least three publishers, Norton, Running Press and Barnes & Noble, who have recently come out with single volume collections of Darwin's four major works. This particular collection published by Norton is by far the most complete and useful. First of all the book has been edited by the eminent Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson. Wilson provides an introductory essay for the collection and separate introductions for the four books. The essays are clear and informative, though I would have liked them to be longer. Still we are provided with separate indexes for all four books including a general index. The Running Press collection, by comparison, lacks an index and has, furthermore, had most illustrations removed.

The only complaint I have about the Norton book is that Darwin's footnotes have been converted to endnotes. A bit of an annoyance.

I think it was Gould who lamented the fact that so few people have actually read Darwin. I'll admit that he's not always easy reading but it's almost always rewarding and this small collection puts his four primary works right on your desk.

Darwin's writings are far from the last word on evolution and natural selection and enormous strides have been made since he first presented his ideas. That doesn't diminish the importance of these works though. Feynman always went back to the original authors in his study of physics and found that it gave him a tremendous edge in understanding new ideas: once you have a firm foundation and basis of understanding it's easier to see how new ideas fit in or change the central dogma. In the same way these volumes are necessary for an understanding of the historical questions concerning evolution and for the still current debates.

I found the introduction and notes by Wilson to be a real help that added to the text. Darwin's ideas are seminal and still so controversial to out culture at large that we still fight over them. Reading through this collection can help gain a deeper perspective into Darwin, his ideas, and the entire study of evolution.

Having also considered the alternative collection "The Evolution Of An
Idea by James Watson " I arrived at this work, from the couple dozen
small newspaper-style, mini-illustrations on same pages, and the feedback
received from this work.

Actually, it's an open debate whether this is the best option. First,
all 4 books are glued together in one giant "tome" ...and this doesn't
facilitate reading, from the size or the volume. Also, the pages are
extremely thin, although not transparent, and probably smudge easily
and are fragile. That's another liability, if one makes notes in the
pages, probably the ink will leak to the other size, etc.

Perhaps the best option, is buying all 4 books separately, and reading
them one at a time.

It's a rare treat to be able to locate all four of evolutionist pioneer Charles Darwin's books in one library - and so it's a special treat to have them handily published under one cover and slipboxed for added durability and attraction. Here are THE VOYAGE OF THE BEATLE, ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, THE DESCENT OF MAN and THE EXPRESSIONS OF THE EMOTIONS IN MAN AND ANIMALS, representing Darwin's evolving theories. His texts are taken directly from facsimiles of his original first editions, are tied together by six original essays and introductions by Edward O. Wilson, and make for an excellent gathering paired with nearly two hundred illustrations scanned from originals - many by Darwin himself. If only one definitive Darwin title were to be included in a college-level holding, it should be this one.

Several fine reviews have already been written here about this collection of Darwin's books, which I have only just received and have not, therefore, had chance to read from cover to cover. So, I cannot comment on Darwin's words, except to say that the little I did read showed an easy, highly comprehensible style of writing which was, to me, surprisingly modern. The reason why I have decided to add my review is that little has been said about the aesthetic beauty of this collection. For me, books are not just books, and I am sure there are many readers that know exactly what I mean by that without my having to spell it out. In this collection, the paper is fine and smooth and the print clear. Where I live, in the tropics, cheap, porous paper soon becomes mottled and darkens in colour and I have found that paper of this quality is often impervious to heat and humidity. The hard binding, under the dust jacket is, to me, so delightful I am almost, but not quite, tempted to throw the dust jacket away! The dust jacket is handsomely designed and is repeated on the outside of the protective slipcase. Warning: Don't buy the book expecting it to be packed with colour photographs and/or illustrations; it isn't. It is, however,worth every cent, in my opinion.

Darwin's four seminal books for only about $25.00? Such a deal! Buy this compendium instead of Watson's. Wilson's edition gives you all the figures plus excellent indices.

These are all the first editions so you get to read Darwin's original texts before he responded to critics. A very enlightening and enjoyable addendum is Morse Peckham's Variorum edition (Due out in paperback via Amazon in May). In it you can see Darwin's thought developing as he added and subtracted from each of the five later editions.

To see where evolutionary science is headed in the 21st century, don't miss Sean Carroll's Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Carroll's book is clearly written and insightful. EvoDevo is the final phase of evolution and will soon allow us to fully understand how all these critters came to be.

The four books of Darwin together as one is awesome. I was enthralled by every page, I myself am a scientist and I enjoyed it very much. The voyage was probably my favorite. Following Darwin on a voyage around the world over 150 years ago and how Darwin told his story shattered my expectations of the book, and even Darwin as a person. Many times throughout he discusses slavery and discrimination. Everyone needs to read something of Darwin's especially in the recent popularity of 'intelligent design.' Great read, easy to understand.

These works taken together are the literary legacy of the scientific pioneer whose work has aroused greater controversy than any other. In the very powerful polemic introduction to this work E.O. Wilson claims that Darwin is the most influential human being of all time. And he argues that Darwin's major discovery i.e. that natural selection is the mechanism of Evolution, provides the nails for the coffin of Biblical based religion. E.O. Wilson in short connects the Darwinian discovery with the death not only of ' special creation theology' but with the very idea of a Personal, Purposeful Caring God as Creator of the Universe.
I think he might done more justice to Darwin had he not pushed the matter so far, and instead simply traced out Darwin's major discoveries, and their meaning. He could also of course explain as he does in part Darwin's gradual but definite distancing of himself from Christianity.
Wilson's work comes of course at a time when the 'Intelligent Design' contoversy seems to be causing havoc in American's school- system.
He takes the position that the real religion of Mankind should be scientific discovery and truth- and not what he regards as the kind of mythic, self- assuring and self- deceptive doctrines provided by the Great Monotheistic Religions.
As a practioneer of one of those religions ( Judaism) it seems to me that there is a stark and fundamental contradiction between the religious idea of ' special creation' and the Darwinian conception of Mankind's evolving from 'lower' forms of life. I believe that this contradiction has to be seriously considered in the religious thought of the future. And this when there are religious thinkers, such as the late Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, for whom the whole evolutionary idea is central to their thought. Like Teillhard de Chardin, Kook in a sense sees the whole cosmic development as an evolution toward greater closeness to G-d, and perhaps even God-Consciousness.
In any case these four fundamental volumes of Darwin are a scientific and literary treasure about whose metaphysical and religious implications there is far more to be debated about than I have been able to hint here.

This is a collection of Darwin's four best known books, and it's a great read for any natural science enthusiast. My only complaint is that the volume is so large in size that it makes it rather inconvenient to carry with you. The price is very reasonable, if you were interested in only two of Darwin's works you may as well buy this and get his four major publications.