From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books

by Charles Darwin, Edward O. Wilson

Overview

Hailed as "superior" by Nature, this landmark volume is  available in a collectible, boxed edition.

Never before have the four great works of Charles Darwin—Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle (1845), The Origin of Species (1859), The Descent of Man (1871), and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)—been collected under one cover. Undertaking this challenging endeavor 123 years after Darwin's death, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson has written an introductory essay for the occasion, while providing new, insightful introductions to each of the four volumes and an afterword that examines the fate of evolutionary theory in an era of religious resistance. In addition, Wilson has crafted a creative new index to accompany these four texts, which links the nineteenth-century, Darwinian evolutionary concepts to contemporary biological thought. Beautifully slipcased, and including restored versions of the original illustrations, From So Simple a Beginning turns our attention to the astounding power of the natural creative process and the magnificence of its products.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393061345
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/2005
Edition description:	Slipcased Edition
Pages:	1712
Sales rank:	1,161,029
Product dimensions:	6.66(w) x 9.84(h) x 2.77(d)

About the Author

Naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is the father of evolution. His groundbreaking The Origin of Species argued that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. As much as anyone in the modern era, Darwin has changed the course of human thought.

Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021) was the author of more than thirty books, including Anthill, Letters to a Young Scientist, and The Conquest of Nature. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilson was a professor emeritus at Harvard University and lived with his wife in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Date of Birth:

February 12, 1809

Date of Death:

April 19, 1882

Place of Birth:

Shrewsbury, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

B.A. in Theology, Christ¿s College, Cambridge University, 1831

Editorial Reviews

To call the concurrent publication of these bulky twin volumes examples of parallel evolution would literally be incorrect in the Darwinian sense-but maybe not as it applies to the natural selection of the publishing marketplace. Imagine the synchronicity in the board rooms of two major publishers who decided, independently yet almost simultaneously, to commemorate Darwin's upcoming 200th birthday (in 2009) by repackaging his most important works in a single volume and inviting a major celebrity scientist to contribute running commentary, thus creating a keepsake that is both quaint and contemporary. All in time for the holidays! Commonalities make up the vast substance of each volume. Darwin's four major works, The Voyage of the Beagle, On the Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, and The Expression of Emotion in Men and Animals, are all reproduced, although the absolute completeness of each version may be questioned. Introducing each volume and each of its four books, the guest scientist provides brief, cursory, sometimes perhaps mildly self-serving commentary; both are equally incriminated. Nobel laureate Watson's and Pulitzer Prize winner Wilson's unique narrative contributions to each volume can be read in half an hour, with precious little insight gained from either. Furthermore, neither textual volume should be regarded as unerringly faithful to the primary sources, as there are disparities between them. For example, Chapter 2 from The Descent of Man reads differently in each, and several illustrations are placed or numbered differently. Darwin's own footnotes are egregiously stripped from the text of the reading copy of Wilson's version. Even at these densities, some editorial discretion is evident in space allocation. However, sidebars note that selected content has been omitted from both reading copies, so no final verdict on the fidelity of either version is possible on the basis of this level of analysis. Regardless, these volumes appear to have negligible scholarly value. The publisher of Wilson's version promises a "creative new index" (not seen by reviewer) to accompany these four texts, one linking Darwin's terminology to modern times. Since Watson's book has no index, that might make a difference. Either way, the market for these books is individual buyers, not libraries. [For From So Simple a Beginning, see Prepub Alert, LJ 7/05.]-Gregg Sapp, Science Lib., SUNY Albany Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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