Charles Darwin was a prolific writer, authoring 23 books, both scientific and biographical. His most famous works are 'The Voyage of the Beagle' (1839), 'On The Origin of Species' (1859) and 'The Descent of Man' (1871). He wrote over 150 articles and exchanged letters with nearly 2,000 people during his lifetime. He also left behind a variety of other documents such as lecture notes and private papers, which are now being made accessible (link to below).
The Voyage of the Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle is the title most commonly given to Darwin's account of his experiences on the HMS Beagle. Published as Journal and Remarks, the book formed the third volume in a series of four, published collectively as a narrative of the ship's circumnavigation of the globe. HMS Beagle's Captain Fitzroy either edited or wrote the other volumes, asking Darwin to contribute a section on natural history relating to the voyage.
The book is also published under the title Journal of Researches and consists of Darwin's published diaries and scientific field notes covering biology, geology and anthropology, made during his five year research voyage. The publication of this work brought Darwin his initial public fame and entry into scientific circles.
On The Origin of Species
On The Origin of Species is an important scientific text, possibly the most renowned of Darwin's publications. Although it did not bring initial fame, it has since become one of the most influential books in the history of science. Given its standing, it is surprising to some that On The Origin of Species was not the first work written about the topic of evolution. The significance of Darwin's work lies partly in the thoroughness and scope of his research, as previous publications speculating on evolution lacked either a mechanism or persuasive evidence for the process. The content of On The Origin of Species is often confused in the public mind with that of a later book, The Descent of Man, which dealt explicitly with ideas and implications for human evolution that were only implied in On The Origin of Species. This confusion is largely due to caricatures in Punch, a popular satirical magazine, which took to representing Darwin as an ape long before The Descent of Man was written.
After its initial publication in 1859, The Origin of Species saw five reprints during Darwin's lifetime (1860, 1861, 1866, 1869 and 1872). Its full inaugural title in 1859 was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Due to the unwieldy title, the book is often simply referred to as On The Origin of Species. The 1872 6th edition dropped 'On' from the full title and included the word 'evolution' for the first time within its text, although the word 'evolved' occurs once in the first edition (the last word of the book).
Published twenty years after his voyage on the HMS Beagle, On The Origin of Species presents the theory which was born during that voyage and developed over the following two decades. The book serves as an abstract for other works that deal with specific aspects of evolutionary theory in more detail. Upon its initial publication, the book attracted widespread interest from both the public and scientific community, and it continues to be the subject of debate and discussion in both spheres. Although the theory of evolution has itself evolved since Darwin's own contributions, the book still stands as a milestone in scientific understanding, and his theory of evolution by natural selection remains a cornerstone of evolutionary theory.
The Descent of Man
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) was Darwin's second large book on evolutionary theory. Again, the title is often shortened for convenience to The Descent of Man. This work is concerned with outlining the application of his theory to human evolution and detailing the theory of sexual selection. The book touches on a number of related issues, including evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, differences between human races, differences between human sexes, and the relevance of the evolutionary theory to society.
The Descent of Man was the first of Darwin's works to include the term 'evolution', which was only included in the second reprint (and later also included in the sixth and last edition of The Origin of Species, 1872).
Reading Darwin
The early written works of Charles Darwin mostly consisted of data. In later years he increasingly included theoretical interpretations of his studies. Darwin's most famous works are those few which broadly examine a wide subject matter; however, he wrote many papers and publications which were much more narrowly focused, such as On the Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants (1865) or The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms (1881). The focus of Darwin's works throughout his career reflect his gradually shifting interests, from geology to zoology to botany.
Since 2002, Darwin's work has become significantly more accessible via the Internet. Two comprehensive initiatives organised from the University of Cambridge aim to give free online access to all known works by Charles Darwin. . Darwin Online covers his scholarly works, both published and unpublished. The collection contains at least one copy of each work, and where possible copies of each reprint are available. The site contains both searchable text and digital reproductions of the originals, as well as some translations. The vast output of Darwin's career makes this project a valuable resource, and many of these works are not otherwise easily accessible, due to their rarity or relative obscurity.
Charles Darwin's unpublished letters are the focus of another online project, the Darwin Correspondence Project. The letters are a contemporary record of conversations between many leading scientists of the day, public figures, family, friends, and others. As the organisers of the project say, the letters “provide us with an invaluable source of information, not only about [Darwin's] own intellectual development and social network, but about Victorian science and society in general. They provide a remarkably complete picture of the development of his thinking, throwing light on his early formative years and the years of the voyage of the Beagle, on the period which led up to the publication of The Origin of Species and the subsequent heated debates.” The project itself contains searchable versions of over 5,000 letters written from or to Darwin, including all surviving letters from his voyage on HMS Beagle.
