Perhaps the most readable and accessible of the great works of scientific imagination, The Origin of Species sold out on the day it was published in 1859. Theologians quickly labeled Charles Darwin the most dangerous man in England, and, as the Saturday Review noted, the uproar over the book quickly "passed beyond the bounds of the study and lecture-room into the drawing-room and the public street." Yet, after reading it, Darwin's friend and colleague T. H. Huxley had a different reaction: "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that."

Based largely on Darwin's experience as a naturalist while on a five-year voyage aboard H.M.S. Beagle, The Origin of Species set forth a theory of evolution and natural selection that challenged contemporary beliefs about divine providence and the immutability of species. A landmark contribution to philosophical and scientific thought, this edition also includes an introductory historical sketch and a glossary Darwin later added to the original text.

Charles Darwin grew up considered, by his own account, "a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect." A quirk of fate kept him from the career his father had deemed appropriate--that of a country parson--when a botanist recommended Darwin for an appointment as a naturalist aboard H.M.S. Beagle from 1831 to 1836. Darwin is also the author of the five-volume work Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle (1839) and The Descent of Man (1871).

Charles Darwin's THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES is one of the landmark works that has helped shape the modern world. The book has fresh applications today for its pioneering views on the ecology of plants and animals. This edition also includes an introductory historical sketch and a glossary Darwin later added to the original text, as well as an Introduction by Walter Cronkite.

Charles Darwin's the Origin of Species is one of the landmark works that has helped shape the modern world.

Darwin's five-year voyage on HMS Beagle sparked the ideas that he molded into his revolutionary argument for the material origin of the diversity of the animal kingdom and the theory of natural selection. As was the case with the work of other great modern thinkers like Freud and Marx, Darwin's controversial and challenging theories have changed the way we look at our world and this book is perhaps the most readable and accessible of the great works of the scientific imagination. The Origin of Species has fresh applications today for its pioneering views on the ecology of plants and animals.

This edition also includes an introductory historical sketch and a glossary Darwin later added to the original text as well as an Introduction by Walter Cronkite.