The Evolution of Charles Darwin: The Epic Voyage of the Beagle That Forever Changed Our View of Life on Earth

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Preston is sympathetic to Darwin's long delay in publishing his theory, until Wallace was nipping at his heels. Compare her treatment of this topic to Paul Johnson's, still my gold standard for a short Darwin bio: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

When twenty-two-year-old aspiring geologist Charles Darwin boarded HMS Beagle in 1831 with his microscopes and specimen bottles--invited by ship's captain Robert FitzRoy who wanted a travel companion at least as much as a ship's naturalist--he hardly thought he was embarking on what would become perhaps the most important and epoch-changing voyage in scientific history. Nonetheless, over the course of the five-year journey around the globe in often hard and hazardous conditions, Darwin would make observations and gather samples that would form the basis of his revolutionary theories about the origin of species and natural selection. I learned some new things and that's the first half of a good nonfiction book. The second half would be, Did you enjoy learning those new things? ...Yeah, mostly. It was still really long, and when I read the author credits her husband for the book also, without actually saying he writes some of it, it actually felt like there were 2 writers! There were really good parts with his quotes and evocative descriptions of the terrain, fauna, flora; and then stretches of the boring recitation of then they went there, and killed this, and then they went here, met that disagreeable fellow who was ugly, and there again, and he grumbled about this, and blah blah blah. Preston's] books are always entertaining . . . This book fits that mould; it's an adventure story . . . The author has chosen the perfect topic. It's nearly impossible to write a dull book about Darwin . . . The real attraction of this book lies in the way it turns the development of evolutionary theory into a personal story."-- Gerald DeGroot, Times (UK)

Fascinating . . . A beautifully told coming-of-age story focused on Darwin's psychological transmutation from a diffident specimen collector expecting to become a country parson to a novice scientist climbing the career ladder in London's private and prestigious clubs and societies . . . Offer[s] new and exciting ideas that will likely beat out the competition."-- Robert M. Thorson, Wall Street Journal Such a hobby needed money and—as he would into adulthood—Charles used his sisters as a conduit to obtain it from their formidable father, of whom he seems to have been a little afraid. Darwin recalled his father was easily angered and somewhat unjust to him in his youth. Dr. Darwin was physically imposing— the largest man I ever saw—broad-shouldered, six foot two, and weighing well over twenty-four stone (296 pounds). Though by other accounts inclined to be distant and given to intimidating brooding silences, he seems to have had his son’s interests at heart and the transmitted requests for money usually succeeded. When twenty-two-year-old aspiring geologist Charles Darwin boarded HMS Beagle in 1831 with his microscopes and specimen bottles—invited by ship's captain Robert FitzRoy who wanted a travel companion at least as much as a ship's naturalist—he hardly thought he was embarking on what would become perhaps the most important and epoch-changing voyage in scientific history. Nonetheless, over the course of the five-year journey around the globe in often hard and hazardous conditions, Darwin would make observations and gather samples that would form the basis of his revolutionary theories about the origin of species and natural selection.

Ms. Preston's conference narrative abjures authorial hindsight judgments, placing the spotlight instead on the characters' natural blind spots and biases. She also devotes a full third of the book to the summit's historical context and personalities, the latter of which are nicely developed."-- Wall Street Journal

One reviewer described this as an irresistible scientific biography and adventure story with a happy ending. Agreed. The argument is made that of all scientists across known time, from Aristotle to Galileo, Newton to Einstein, that Darwin could arguably be the most significant. This book chronicles the voyage of the Beagle and what it lead to. The voyage of the Beagle was about discovery in every sense, at every level, from self-discovery through detailed broadening of knowledge to the widest scientific revelation. This book belongs to all who sailed, but especially to Darwin, without whom the voyage would have been a footnote, albeit quite an important one, in the history of marine charting and meteorology. As he himself wrote, it was by far the most important event in my life and … determined my whole career. The voyage marked an evolution in Darwin himself. The more facts he gathered—and he was, throughout his life, an inveterate list maker—the more ideas came into his head. Many of these would have seemed heretical to the embryo clergyman he had been when he sailed, not doubting the literal truth of the Biblical picture of Creation. For most of the voyage Darwin thought of himself as primarily a geologist. However, in its latter stages he turned increasingly to biology and zoology. As the Beagle finally headed for home, he was already making notes on how species changed though it would be many years before he felt confident enough to reveal his ideas about evolution publicly and face the storm of hostility he knew they would provoke. Integral to his thinking was the interrelationship between living organisms and their environment, making him a pioneer of what we today call ecology. One pitch-dark night Darwin recorded a strange sight: “The sea from its extreme luminousness presented a wonderful … appearance; every part of the water, which by day is seen as foam, glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake was a milky train.—As far as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and from the reflected light the sky just above the horizon was not so utterly dark as the rest of the Heavens …” The sight reminded him of Milton’s descriptions “of the regions of Chaos and Anarchy” from his favorite book, Paradise Lost.

Darwin never left Britain again after his return in 1836, though his mind journeyed far and wide to develop the theories that were first revealed, after great delay and with trepidation about their reception, in 1859 with the publication of his epochal book On the Origin of Species. Offering a unique portrait of one of history's most consequential figures, The Evolution of Charles Darwin is a vital contribution to our understanding of life on Earth. However, thanks to Grant, Darwin got to hear the renowned American ornithologist John James Audubon lecture on North American birds. His talk inspired Darwin to take lessons from a taxidermist— a negro … a very pleasant and intelligent man—who made his living teaching university students at the cost of a guinea a term how to preserve dead animals. His lodgings were just a few doors from Darwin’s. His name was John Edmonstone, and he was a former enslaved man, now freed—Edmonstone being the name of his former owner in Guyana. He had accompanied Edmonstone’s friend, explorer and naturalist Charles Waterton, in his travels through the South American jungle. Waterton had taught him taxidermy.Lively and nuanced . . . Shrewd on the main personalities . . . Preston goes beyond the horse-trading of three old men, with vivid scene-setting of the tsarist palaces where the conference took place.”— Times (UK) A brisk and accessible account of how Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection . . . A rewarding look at the development of an earth-shattering idea.”— Publishers Weekly Darwin never left Britain again after his return in 1836, though his mind journeyed far and wide to develop the theories that were first revealed, after great delay and with trepidation about their reception, in 1859 with the publication of his epochal book On the Origin of Species. Drawing on a rich range of revealing letters, diary entries, recollections of those who encountered him, and Darwin’s and FitzRoy’s own accounts of what transpired, Diana Preston chronicles the epic voyage as it unfolded, tracing Darwin’s growth from untested young man to accomplished adventurer and natural scientist in his own right.

Where Robert Darwin perceived dangers and difficulties, Jos Wedgwood saw a glorious opportunity. He asked his nephew to list Dr. Darwin’s objections, then wrote a long letter crisply demolishing each in turn: sailing on the Beagle would not be in any degree disreputable to his nephew’s future as a clergyman; there was no reason to suppose it would make him unsteady and unable to settle; the Admiralty would never dispatch an unseaworthy ship on such a venture; although the voyage would be useless as regards Darwin’s career in the church, as a man of enlarged curiosity, it would give him an opportunity of seeing men and things as happens to few. An engaging narrative . . . Rich in detail and texture.” — San Diego Union Tribune, on Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima Preston deftly and graphically weaves the complex stories—hitherto kept distinct—of these land, sea, and air innovations into a connected narrative. For the first time, readers can grasp the mounting cognitive assault on civilians, soldiers, and politicians of the curious clustering of events that spring.” — New York Times Book Review, on A Higher Form of Killing A letter dated September 1, 1831, from Beaufort alerted FitzRoy that his Savant had been found: a Mr Darwin grandson of the well known philosopher and poet [Erasmus Darwin]—full of zeal and enterprize and having contemplated a voyage on his own account to S. America … Let me know how you like the idea … By now, however, FitzRoy had begun to wonder whether he really wanted to live in close proximity with someone he did not know and probably of a very different political hue. Overcome by what he later called a sudden horror of the chances of having somebody [I] should not like on board the vessel he decided to throw cold water on the scheme and to write his cousin in Cambridge the letter that so dismayed Darwin. A colorful chronicle of high-stakes negotiations and a study in human frailties, missteps, and ideological blunders.”— Washington Post

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Darwin never left Britain again after his return in 1836, though his mind journeyed far and wide to develop the theories that were first revealed, after great delay and with trepidation about their reception, in 1859 with the publication of his epochal book On the Origin of Species . Offering a unique portrait of one of history's most consequential figures, The Evolution of Charles Darwin is a vital contribution to our understanding of life on Earth. From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning historian, the colourful, dramatic story of Charles Darwin’s journey on HMS Beagle that inspired the evolutionary theories in his path-breaking books On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. As majestic as its subject . . . Extraordinarily readable.”— Chicago Sun-Times, on Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy Like many of his contemporaries, Darwin was cheerfully and unashamedly chauvinistic, nationalistic, and sexist, as the diary he kept aboard the Beagle as well as his subsequent writings reveal. However, though far from radical, his political views were liberal for the time and deep-seated. He opposed slavery, and during the voyage his abhorrence was reinforced by seeing slave-owning societies at first hand. While he believed that different peoples—such as the indigenous Aboriginal peoples of Australia and the Fuegians subsisting near-naked in twig wigwams in chill Tierra del Fuego—might be at differing stages of “civilization,” he never wavered from the belief that all humankind belongs to a single species. On 30 June 1860, in Oxford University's hot and crowded Museum of Natural History, crowds politely endured a rambling talk by a visiting New York academic 'On the Intellectual Development of Europe, with Reference to the Views of Mr. Darwin'. What they had really come to hear was not the lecture, but the subsequent debate about Charles Darwin's recent publication, On the Origin of Species. Newspapers reported the event to be as sensational as anticipated, with onlookers shouting and even fainting.