1842, "The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs".
"in which Darwin presented a hypothesis that solved the riddle of how coral reefs grow, where they grow, and why.
Steve Jones Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise, in his first chapter, explains how Darwin came to his hypothesis,
how it shaped all subsequent research on coral reefs, and how drilling into Pacific atolls, conducted in support of
nuclear bomb tests, ultimately confirmed it.
Darwin's book relied on the simple but profound idea that 'lowly' organisms, here coral polyps, pursuing their own
tiny goals, through their sheer numbers and over the immensity of time, could play major roles on the geological stage.
This is also a theme in his 1859 book The Origin of Species, whose detractors could not fathom the transformative
power of small, between-generation changes occurring over eons. This simple idea was again the theme of his 1881 book on
the slow, subterranean work of earthworms, The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, to which
he devoted his final years." (1).
1859 "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or Preservation of favored Races in the Struggle for Life" (six editions)
- Here is an on-line
verson of the first edition of Darwin's revolutionary work. Each chapter can be downloaded separately. The on-line
version makes full-text search (per chapter) possible.
- All 6 editions of the
Origin (plus translations) and a general introduction can be found on
The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online,
which is the most complete site with online works of Darwin. F401 = code for 6th edition.
- See here for the covers of 12 of the 410 editions of
The Origin (near bottom of the page).
- Morse Peckham (editor) 2006 CHARLES DARWIN'S ORIGIN OF SPECIES. A Variorum Text, 816 pp. University of Pennsylvania Press.
This edition traces all the changes Darwin made in the subsequent editions of the Origin.
Info.
See review in The Times Literary Supplement, March 14, 2007.
- On the Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Traces: visual animation of changes to the 6 editions of The Origin as they unfold through time by Ben Fry.
mp3 audio files of The Origin of Species: Project Gutenberg.
- Blogging The Origin is a blog about The Origin chapter-by-chapter by John Whitfield (author of 'In the Beat of a Heart')
- 'The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species', Harvard University Press, Hardcover, 2009,
annotated by James T. Costa. The original text and the annotations are side by side on the same page, which is very helpful and
neatly done. Info (plus free Introduction).
The only disadvantage of this edition is that we cannot follow the changes made by Darwin in the subsequent
editions of the Origin.
- 'On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition', Sterling 2008. Info.
With more than 350 illustrations and photos.
1862 "On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects"
Full text on The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online.
(see also Alister McGrath 67)
1868 "The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication"
Full text on The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online.
(See also: Kirschner p17)
1871 "The Descent of Man, and selection in Relation to Sex."
Volume 1 (F937) (on The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online)
Volume 2 (F937) (on The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online)
F955 Second edition.
Print editions:
Penguin Classic
Edited with an introduction by James Moore and Adrian Desmond;
Princeton University Press (1981) 475 pages. The PUP edtion is a photoreproduction of the 1871 edition of J. Murray,
With a new introduction by J.T. Bonner and R.M. May (1981).
The advantage of a print edition is the Introduction of a classic text to the modern reader.
- Review: The Descent is reviewed here (on this site).
1872 "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals"
In this work Darwin sought to explain much of our emotional behaviour in terms of instincts inherited from our animal ancestors.
Full text on The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online.
1881 "The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits"
The Classic Literature Library project
has a free on-line version of this book.
Full text on The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online.
Frederick Burkhardt and Duncan Porter (editors)
"The Correspondence Of Charles Darwin", Cambridge University Press.
See review by Jim Endersby in The Times Literary Supplement, March 14, 2007.
See also: Darwin Correspondence Project, University Library, Cambridge, UK.
Frederick Burkhardt (editor) (2008)
"Origins. Selected Letters of Charles Darwin, 1822-1859", Cambridge University Press.
info.
Frederick Burkhardt, Alison Pearn, Samantha Evans (2008)
"Evolution. Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870", Cambridge University Press.
info.
Notes
- Daniel Pauly (2007) 'Trouble in paradise', Nature 447, 33-34 (3 May 2007)
Further Reading:
- Darwin Correspondence Project: The complete texts of letters from 1837 to 1859 are now available online, together with details of all known letters including brief summaries.
- Reviews of Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist by Adrian Desmond and James Moore: Sara Miles,
NewScientist.
- Michael Ruse and Robert J. Richards, Eds. (2008) 'The Cambridge Companion to the "Origin of the Species"',
Cambridge University Press, New York, 2008 Hardback: 423 pp.
- Hand-written annotations Charles Darwin made on 700 of the books in his personal library.
