Lord of the Rings
This is a
quick review of the book not a dissertation on Darwin or any other subject
loosely related. At first I did not know what to expect. I already read "
The Voyage of the Beagle : Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches" ISBN:
014043268X (see my review May 24, 2000). I figured the book would be
similar. However I found "Origin" to be more complex and detailed.
Taking in account that recent pieces of knowledge were not available to
Charles Darwin this book could have been written last week. Having to look
from the outside without the knowledge of DNA or Plate Tectonics, he
pretty much nailed how the environment and crossbreeding would have an
effect on natural selection. Speaking of natural selection, I thought his
was going to be some great insight to a new concept. All it means is that
species are not being mucked around by man (artificial selection).
If you picked up Time magazine today you would find all the things that
Charles said would be near impossible to find or do. Yet he predicted that
it is doable in theory. With an imperfect geological record many things he
was not able to find at the writing of this book have been found
(according to the possibilities described in the book.)
The only draw back to the book was his constant apologizing. If he had
more time and space he could prove this and that. Or it looks like this
but who can say at this time. Or the same evidence can be interpreted 180
degrees different.
In the end it is worth reading and you will never look at life the same
way again.
Forget the image of the grim, ancient, grey-bearded savant. By the time those pictures were taken Darwin was long past his energetic prime. BEAGLE catches him literally starting out on his life-long voyage of discovery at a time when he was still extremely physically active and just beginning to come to grips with the seriousness of his interest in Natural History. Later in life he said that the VOYAGE was his personal favorite of all his writings, and one can see why. Darwin set off young, energetic, but frankly naieve & a little foolish (his father ahd written to him at Cambridge saying that he feared that he would never amount to much, and apart from his work with Henslow, much of his college career seems to have been devoted to what we would now call "partying hearty") He returned a seasoned naturalist and explorer, with the germ of his Great Idea firmly implanted. While in many ways VOYAGE is describing a vanished world, Darwin's keen eye for detail renders each landscape with such clarity that one feels that one is really along for the trip -and, thank goodness, some of the places he went to are still there for us to go & wonder at. There is no Big Theory here, just an enormous sense of wonder and excitement, with little of the periodic homesickness that shows up in the letters that he was writing during the voyage. Perhaps most intriguing is the remarkably SHORT section on the Galapagos -I remember thinking the first time that I read the VOYAGE "Wait, but wasn't the Galapagos THE Big Deal?" No, not to read it here in the original. One gets the sense that many of Darwins fundamental beliefs were already in gestation long before he left the coast of South America & by the time he gets to the Galapagos, he is increasingly anxious to be home & working it all out. Make sure that you get a COMPLETE version of the Voyage, there are many editions (including abbridgements) out there
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