The Voyage of the Beagle (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature) [Paperback]

Charles Darwin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Classics of World Literature | Publication Date: December 5, 1999

Charles Darwin's travels around the world as an independent naturalist on HMS Beagle between 1831 and 1836 impressed upon him a sense of the natural world's beauty and sublimity which language could barely capture. Words, he said, were inadequate to convey to those who have not visited the inter-tropical regions, the sensation of delight which the mind experiences'. Yet in a travel journal which takes the reader from the coasts and interiors of South America to South Sea Islands, Darwin's descriptive powers are constantly challenged, but never once overcome. In addition, The Voyage of the Beagle displays Darwin's powerful, speculative mind at work, posing searching questions about the complex relation between the Earth's structure, animal forms, anthropology and the origins of life itself.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book is in Electronic Paperback Format. If you view this book on any of the computer systems below, it will look like a book. Simple to run, no program to install. Just put the CD in your CDROM drive and start reading. The simple easy to use interface is child tested at pre-school levels.

Windows 3.11, Windows/95, Windows/98, OS/2 and MacIntosh and Linux with Windows Emulation.

Includes Quiet Vision's Dynamic Index. the abilty to build a index for any set of characters or words. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

In 1831, Charles Darwin embarked on an expedition that, in his own words, determined my whole career. The Voyage of the Beagle chronicles his five-year journey around the world and especially the coastal waters of South America as a naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle. While traveling through these unexplored countries collecting specimens, Darwin began to formulate the theories of evolution and natural selection realized in his master work, The Origin of Species. Travel memoir and scientific primer alike, The Voyage of the Beagle is a lively and accessible introduction to the mind of one of history's most influential thinkers. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Books Britain (December 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853264768
• ISBN-13: 978-1853264764
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,039,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't get the Wordsworth Edition, April 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Voyage of the Beagle (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature) (Paperback)

This is an extremely interesting book; well worth reading. However I would not recommend getting the edition published by Wordsworth (ISBN 185364768). It was not proof-read very carefully, and contains a lot of typographical errors.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great classic of science., August 23, 1998

By 

Greg B. Shoom (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Voyage of the Beagle: Complete and Unabridged (Paperback)

From 1831 to 1836 Charles Darwin, then a young man in his twenties, was the official naturalist on the Royal Navy ship HMS Beagle. The Beagle spent five years completing a survey of the coasts of South America and making a series of longitude measurements around the world. This proved to be one of the most important scientific voyages of the 19th century, for it was on this voyage that Darwin made the observations that lead, twenty years later, to his formulating the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. This book is Darwin's account of his observations on this voyage. Darwin was a master of detailed observation, and he describes the things he observed -- the plants, animals, geology, and people -- in loving detail. His accounts are always lively and full of interest. Darwin was also a master of inductive reasoning, and there are several superb examples of this in this book. Perhaps the finest is Darwin's induction of the cause of the formation of the coral atolls that dot the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean (his theory was proved correct in the 20th century). Indeed, much of the value of this book for the modern reader lies in the many examples it contains of scientific, inductive thought; a powerful method of reasoning that is as neglected today as it was in Darwin's time.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This Kindle edition stinks-- no pictures, July 12, 2011

By 

dmwstrauss (Chicago) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Voyage of the Beagle (Kindle Edition)

This free Kindle edition stinks-- no pictures. Darwin refers to the illustrations in the text, but they are not there. Get the Kindle Version With Images from Gutenberg.org instead, which otherwise is the same text, right down to the page numbers which are included just as text on their own line (and that's where footnotes are included too.)