Janet Browne

A treasure trove of illuminating and entertaining quotations from the legendary naturalist Here is Charles Darwin in his own words—the naturalist, traveler, scientific thinker, and controversial author of On the Origin of Species, the book that shook the Victorian world. Featuring hundreds of quotations carefully selected by world-renowned Darwin biographer Janet Browne, The Quotable Darwin draws from Darwin’s writings, letters to friends and family, autobiographical reminiscences, and private scientific notebooks. It offers a multifaceted portrait that takes readers through his youth, the famous voyage of the Beagle, the development of his thoughts about evolution, his gradual loss of religious faith, and the time spent turning his ideas into a well-articulated theory about the natural origin of all living beings—a theory that dangerously included the origin of humans. The Quotable Darwin also includes many of the key responses to Darwin’s ideas from figures across the social spectrum, scientists and nonscientists alike—and criticism too. We see Darwin as an innovative botanist and geologist, an affectionate husband and father, and a lively correspondent who once told his cousin that he liked to play billiards because “it drives the horrid species out of my head.” This book gives us an intimate look at Darwin at work, at home, as a public figure, and on his travels. Complete with a chronology of Darwin’s life by Browne, The Quotable Darwin provides an engagingly fresh perspective on a remarkable man who was always thinking deeply about the natural world.

The Quotable Darwin

William F. Bynum

Roy Porter

For readers interested in the development of major scientific concepts and the role of science in the western world, here is the first conceptually organized historical dictionary of scientific thought. The purpose of the dictionary is to illuminate this history by providing a concise, single volume reference book of short historical accounts of the important themes, ideas, and discoveries of science. Its conceptual approach differentiates the dictionary from previous reference works such as books of scientific biography and makes it a convenient manual both for the general reader and for scientists interested in the origin of concepts in their own and other scientific fields. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Dictionary of the History of Science

El 1858, Charles Darwin era un científic que duia una vida afable en Down House, al comtat de Kent. El biòleg encara no es trobava en el focus del debat; el seu «gran llibre sobre les espècies» encara estava manuscrit damunt de la taula. Durant més de 20 anys havia estat acumulant material per al llibre, reflexionant sobre les qüestions que anaven sorgint i intentant arribar a una conclusió satisfactòria. Semblava que la publicació d'aquest manuscrit no arribaria mai pels nombrosos retards a causa de la seua inherent cautela i el desig d'assegurar-se que la seua sorprenent teoria sobre l'evolució fos correcta. En aquest punt arranca l'últim volum de la biografia de Janet Browne, començant pels extraordinaris esdeveniments que finalment van forçar la publicació de L'origen de les espècies, i que van provocar l’arribada dels anys de fama i polèmica.

El poder del lugar

Charles Darwin

This concluding volume of Janet Browne's biography covers the transformation in Charles Darwin's life after the first unexpected announcement of his and Wallace's theory, followed by the publication of Darwin's influential 'The Origin of the Species' a year later.

"Darwin's Origin of Species" caused a sensation on its first day of publication in 1859. The idea that living things gradually evolve through natural selection profoundly shocked its Victorian readers, calling into question what had been for many the unshakeable belief that there was a Creator. This book describes the genesis of Darwin's theories.

A Biography

Darwin's Origin of Species

Few lives of great men offer so much interest - and so many mysteries - as the life of Charles Darwin, the greatest figure of nineteenth-century science, whose ideas are still inspiring discoveries and controversies more than 100 years after his death. Yet, only with the publication of Voyaging, the first volume of this acclaimed biography, do we have a truly vivid and comprehensive picture of Darwin as a man and a scientist. The second and final volume of Janet Browne's biography of Darwin - The Power of Place - is also available from Pimlico.

Volume 1 of a biography

Charles Darwin: Voyaging

James Moore

Adrian Desmond

Definitive, concise, and very interesting... From William Shakespeare to Winston Churchill, the Very Interesting People series provides authoritative bite-sized biographies of Britain's most fascinating historical figures - people whose influence and importance have stood the test of time. Each book in the series is based upon the biographical entry from the world-famous Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

In 1858 Charles Darwin was forty-nine years old, a gentleman scientist living quietly at Down House in the Kent countryside, respected by fellow biologists and well liked among his wide and distinguished circle of acquaintances. He was not yet a focus of debate; his “big book on species” still lay on his study desk in the form of a huge pile of manuscript. For more than twenty years he had been accumulating material for it, puzzling over questions it raised, trying—it seemed endlessly—to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion. Publication appeared to be as far away as ever, delayed by his inherent cautiousness and wish to be certain that his startling theory of evolution was correct. It is at this point that the concluding volume of Janet Browne’s biography opens. The much-praised first volume, Voyaging, carried Darwin’s story through his youth and scientific apprenticeship, the adventurous Beagle voyage, his marriage and the birth of his children, the genesis and development of his ideas. Now, beginning with the extraordinary events that finally forced the Origin of Species into print, we come to the years of fame and controversy. For Charles Darwin, the intellectual upheaval touched off by his book had deep personal as well as public consequences. Always an intensely private man, he suddenly found himself and his ideas being discussed—and often attacked—in circles far beyond those of his familiar scientific community. Demonized by some, defended by others (including such brilliant supporters as Thomas Henry Huxley and Joseph Hooker), he soon emerged as one of the leading thinkers of the Victorian era, a man whose theories played a major role in shaping the modern world. Yet, in spite of the enormous new pressures, he clung firmly, sometimes painfully, to the quiet things that had always meant the most to him—his family, his research, his network of correspondents, his peaceful life at Down House. In her account of this second half of Darwin’s life, Janet Browne does dramatic justice to all aspects of the Darwinian revolution, from a fascinating examination of the Victorian publishing scene to a survey of the often furious debates between scientists and churchmen over evolutionary theory. At the same time, she presents a wonderfully sympathetic and authoritative picture of Darwin himself right through the heart of the Darwinian revolution, busily sending and receiving letters, pursuing research on subjects that fascinated him (climbing plants, earthworms, pigeons—and, of course, the nature of evolution), writing books, and contending with his mysterious, intractable ill health. Thanks to Browne’s unparalleled command of the scientific and scholarly sources, we ultimately see Darwin more clearly than we ever have before, a man confirmed in greatness but endearingly human. Reviewing Voyaging, Geoffrey Moorhouse observed that “if Browne’s second volume is as comprehensively lucid as her first, there will be no need for anyone to write another word on Darwin.” The Power of Place triumphantly justifies that praise.

The Power of Place

An accessible introduction to the classic series describes the genesis of Darwin's theories, from his early university studies and five-year voyage on the Beagle to his debates with contemporaries and his garden experiments, in a scientific and social history that also illuminates historical and modern controversies surrounding the work's publication. Reprint.

Zen Poems of China and Japan

The Crane's Bill

This concluding volume of Janet Browne's biography covers the transformation in Darwin's life after the first unexpected announcement of the theory of evolution by natural selection and the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859. Always a private man, Darwin found himself a controversial figure, reviewed and discussed in circles that stretched far beyond the boundaries of Victorian science. Janet Browne here examines the wider publishing world of Victorian England and the different audiences that responded to the ideas of one of the leading thinkers of the nineteenth century and considers the Darwinian revolution from Darwin's point of view.

Janet Browne

About

Books

Join the club