or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
20 used & new from £56.00
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
On the Origin of Species
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

On the Origin of Species (Hardcover)

by Charles Darwin (Author), Edited by Jim Endersby (Author), Jim Endersby (Editor)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £70.00
Price: £56.74 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £13.26 (19%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 4 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, November 25? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
15 new from £56.00 5 used from £77.50
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover £30.00 £18.49 14 used & new from £16.99
Paperback (New edition) £8.99 £4.94 47 used & new from £3.62
Audio Download (Abridged) £18.59 £13.09
Hardcover (Large Print) £30.99 £29.44 15 used & new from £24.59
Audio CD (Audiobook) £18.59 £16.96 16 used & new from £8.85
Show more editions and formats
12 Days of Christmas Sale in Books
12 Days of Christmas Sale in Books
Get up to 65% off some of our top titles. Shop now

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Frequently Bought Together

On the Origin of Species + The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution + The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition
Price For All Three: £71.50

Show availability and delivery details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Descent of Man: Selection in Relation to Sex (Penguin Classics)

The Descent of Man: Selection in Relation to Sex (Penguin Classics)

by Adrian Desmond
4.1 out of 5 stars (9)  £8.41
Arnold: 'Culture and Anarchy' and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

Arnold: 'Culture and Anarchy' and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

by Matthew Arnold
£10.99
The Nether World (Oxford World's Classics)

The Nether World (Oxford World's Classics)

by George Gissing
£4.94
The Voyage of the "Beagle": Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches (Classics)

The Voyage of the "Beagle": Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches (Classics)

by Charles Darwin
4.5 out of 5 stars (6)  £5.98
The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)

The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)

by Robert Browning
£7.14
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 520 pages
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (31 May 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0521867096
  • ISBN-13: 978-0521867092
  • Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 92,310 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #20 in  Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Evolution > Education

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Harold Fromm, University of Arizona

"Joseph Carroll has produced a definitive edition The Origin of Species...The volume as a whole will be invaluable." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.


Product Description

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection is both a key scientific work of research, still read by scientists, and a readable narrative that has had a cultural impact unmatched by any other scientific text. First published in 1859, it has continued to sell, to be reviewed and discussed, attacked and defended. The Origin is one of those books whose controversial reputation ensures that many who have never read it nevertheless have an opinion about it. Jim Endersby's major new scholarly edition debunks some of the myths that surround Darwin's book, while providing a detailed examination of the contexts within which it was originally written, published and read. Endersby provides a new, up-to-date and very readable introduction to this classic text and a level of scholarly apparatus (explanatory notes, bibliography and appendixes) that is unmatched by any other edition.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

On the Origin of Species
64% buy the item featured on this page:
On the Origin of Species 4.7 out of 5 stars (3)
£56.74
The Origin of Species (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)
19% buy
The Origin of Species (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature) 4.6 out of 5 stars (32)
£2.68
On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition
8% buy
On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition 4.4 out of 5 stars (9)
£14.25
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
4% buy
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution 4.5 out of 5 stars (89)
£9.00
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Victorian Value, 6 Feb 2009
By hw (uk) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On the Origin of Species (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
The Origin of Species is, of course, one of the most famous and influential books ever written, but why would anybody read it today other than as a Victorian curiosity?

What struck me most was not only how much Darwin didn't know, but also the very different ways in which knowledge was acquired 150 years ago. Although the Victorians knew enough practical genetics to breed pigeons or improve livestock, the science of genetics as we understand it did not exist and it would take another century to discover DNA.

Modern laboratories are equipped with a bewildering array of sophisticated technologies that enable scientists to do everything from mapping the human genome to measuring the age of ancient micro-organisms.

And this is where the real difference lies: Darwin had a garden, notebooks, a microscope and (as Prof. Steve Jones recently pointed out) access to a breathtakingly efficient postal service, which brought information from the furthest reaches of Empire and beyond. Crucially, though, Darwin had gifts of observation, clear thinking and a knack for asking the right questions. The real value of this book to a modern reader is to observe these gifts at work in a context that any keen gardener or birdwatcher can understand.

This book is well written by the standards of the Victorian gentleman-scholars who were its first audience, but if you can cope with the average Victorian novel and don't mind looking up the occasional unfamiliar term, then The Origin of Species is probably worth the effort.

The World's Classics edition is well presented, has a useful introduction, a good index and a guide to the other writers mentioned in the text. There is a single diagram, as in the original, but no pictures, which may be a consideration for some readers. My only criticism is that the glossary of terms is Darwin's, from one of the early editions: it would have been useful to have a slightly more comprehensive list for the benefit of modern readers.

The Origin of Species deserves to be read not merely as a cultural artefact or the foundation document of the modern life sciences, but as a timeless work of natural philosophy in the very best sense of that phrase.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars On the Destiny of Species, 16 Oct 2009
By Matthew Watkinson (Northampton, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On the Origin of Species (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
On the Origin of Species must be one of the most famous books in history, yet very few people have any idea what it says. Indeed, even those who claim to have read it seem to have missed the true implications because it's not a book that supports the endless doom and gloom rhetoric that defines modern conservation. In fact, it specifically insults those that wallow in the assumed importance of their own pessimism:

"Nevertheless, so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws on the duration of the forms of life!"

I guess there's a possibility modern conservationists haven't actually read it after all, but either way, objective natural history has been drowned in a cauldron of sentimental hysteria that has nothing to do with Charles Darwin. How comfortable do you think the WWF would be with this quote for example?

"Thus, as it seems to me, the manner in which single species and whole groups of species become extinct accords well with the theory of natural selection."

Given their involvement in the wonderfully preposterous Alliance for Zero Extinction, I would suggest not very. The Alliance for Zero Extinction also includes the Charles Darwin Foundation by the way, but in light of their utopian desperation to end extinction, how comfortable do you think the Charles Darwin Foundation would be with this quote (by Charles Darwin himself remember):

"We need not marvel at extinction; if we must marvel, let it be at our own presumption in imagining for a moment that we understand the many complex contingencies on which the existence of each species depends."

Again, I would suggest not very, and that's why I would urge everybody to read On the Origin of Species before accepting, or suggesting, that humans can `kill the planet'. Yes, they may kill giant pandas, and yes, they may kill polar bears, and yes, they may kill tigers, but no, they will not kill everything. Life will find a way (even if it's via cane toads and comb jellyfish and all the other species that humans don't like very much) and the suggestion that it needs our help is a grotesque insult, at the very best.

And besides, nature doesn't care about giant pandas or polar bears or tigers, as Charles Darwin was well aware:

"Nature, if I may be allowed to personify the natural preservation or survival of the fittest, cares nothing for appearances, except in so far as they are useful to any being."

We may be utterly obsessed with animals with fluffy coats and big eyes, but in reality, nature itself couldn't care less. Life is life after all, regardless of what it looks like:

"The most humble organism is something much higher than the dust under our feet; and no one with an unbiased mind can study any living creature, however humble, without being struck with enthusiasm at its marvellous structure and properties."

They're all incredible, regardless of which types conservationists are trying to save (red squirrels) or kill (grey squirrels) based entirely on self-centred prejudice. And if On the Origin of Species can't convince you, there's always On the Destiny of Species.

On the Destiny of Species by Matthew Watkinson will be published on the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (24th November 2009) and can be ordered on Amazon.co.uk.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
1 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Second Choice, 5 May 2009
By Mr. John Rogers "Dave Rogers" (Fleet, Hants, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: On the Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (Penguin Hardback Classics) (Hardcover)
Ordered this book after I had had another version on order for a month and an email indicated that it was still not in stock. After I ordered this one it arrived extremely quickly.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject
















i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.