Download PDF Charles Darwin The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 9781787377424 Books

Product details Paperback 286 pages Publisher Patagonia Publishing (February 15, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 1787377423

Charles Darwin The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 9781787377424 Books Reviews

• I must admit that I was quite surprised that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. Having no preconceived notions, I choose this book as part of a reading challenge and was very impressed with Darwin's descriptions of his travels and also his disdain of slavery and the mistreatment of slaves in the countries he visited. Excellent observations not just of flora and fauna but of man's influence on nature.
• As a life-long professional wildlife biologist, I found ' The Voyage of the Beagle' to be a fascinating read. Darwin, the quintessential observer & collector of all things natural, writes in an easy-to-read, travelogue style, while at the same time casting a dispassionate eye on the planet's geology, flora & fauna. Also, I especially enjoyed the book because many years ago I acquired a very nice original oil painting of the Beagle plying its way through the Straight of Magellan, a work which has given me much pleasure over the years.
• We are in 1839, Darwin just came back from a five years adventure around the world (Canary Islands, South America and Oceania) and is sharing his diary with us. This guy was madly in love with nature so this book is quite entertaining. He often says that cannot express his feeling while describing flora/fauna/geography but used words like delight, pleasure, delicious, astonishment, remarkable and so on. Those are not words you would use to describe jungles. This is work of wild curiosity. Sometimes the text is even poetic but he is also honest saying things like “We are profoundly ignorant about the conditions of existence every animal”. But the show starts after the middle of the book right after his visit to the Galapagos Islands. You may have goosebumps when he makes the following note “I obtained sufficient materials to establish this most remarkable fact in the distribution of organic beings”. Twenty years later he writes “The Origin of Species” (1959) changing our view of life forever.
• A classic adventure story that led to one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. Our understand of life and biology has completely changed and continues to change as a result of this adventure and Darwin'sbrilliance. A must read. The illustrations supplement the text bringing it alive.
• Outstanding historical record. Very interesting and well written. Provides a good primer to understand how Darwin arrived at his Theory of
  Evolution. For travelers to South America it provides a good comparison to current geopolitical conditions and those that existed at that time.
  He spends a good part of the book describing the social and political situations that existed and not just his observations of the natural world
  as you would expect.
• I was surprised at how easy this is to read! I was particularly interested in Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands, having just returned from a trip to that area. Also, I am reading another book about the area, "The Uttermost Part of the Earth", written by a man born there in the mid 1800s, son of a missionary. It has been interesting, reading teh books together, because both authors share many experiences, but with often differing opinions. Darwin's descriptions of the geography and the wildlife are wonderful. My one complaint (and it's a big one) is that this is supposed to be the "Illustrated Edition" and there is not one illustration in the e-book. Still, I have really enjoyed the book, and encourage others to try it.
• I hadn't read it until now, and am enjoying it much much more than I thought that I would. What a treat to have access to the thoughts and writings from one of the most brilliant minds of modern times. Engaging, thoughtful and fascinating to see the observations that contribute to the eventual theory of evolution. Darwin seems like a delightful individual, and doesn't hesitate to poke fun at himself. One criticism the formatting was dreadful in this version - the footnotes breakup the text. But it was free, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.
• I was glad to find that the version contained both illustrations and footnotes, just as the bound book does. The tale, itself, makes one want to hie to a travel agency and book passage following the exact route of the Beagle. Darwin's ability to draw you into his fascination with the natural world is astounding, detailed, marvelous. It's beautiful.
  While I'll always prefer bound books, I have come to love the versions of books. If nothing else, it's a somewhat less expensive way of finding out whether or not you want to pay full price for the bound book.