Darwin and the Barnacle: Amazon.co.uk: Rebecca Stott: Books

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Review

"Now, at last, Rebecca Stott...has had the courage and tenacity to make Darwin's barnacles--and their importance--accessible to the rest of us." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

James A. Secord, author of 'Victorian Sensation

'A marvellous evocation of an eminent Victorian's passion for some surprisingly sexy sea creatures. You'll never look at a barnacle, or at Darwin, the same way again.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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First Sentence
January 1822. Leith, the harbour town of Edinburgh. Read the first page

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9 Reviews

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3.8 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Disappointing, 8 Sep 2003

By	Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Darwin and the Barnacle (Hardcover)

This book has several problems, the most noticeable one being that it doesn't live up to its own subtitle- "The Story Of One Tiny Creature And History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough". I think that, based on that subtitle, it is a reasonable assumption that the book is going to link Darwin's study of barnacles to his theory of evolution by natural selection. Well, I read all 261 pages of this book and let me state categorically that the author never makes the connection. We get a lot of information about barnacles, no doubt about it. We find out about barnacles that secrete their own shells, barnacles that burrow into other creatures' shells, barnacles that attach themselves to flesh, etc. We also get to know about hermaphroditical, bisexual, and unisexual barnacles. But the author never goes into specifics regarding why these variations developed, nor does she explain how the study of barnacles helped Darwin to further develop, or fine tune, his theory of evolution by natural selection. As I kept reading this book, I said to myself that the author must have a reason for barraging us with all of this barnacle minutiae. Must be she'll have a chapter near the end where she'll explain the specific biological/environmental reasons for the variations and show how this helped Darwin to clarify his thinking. Well, sorry to say, there is no such chapter in the book. Another problem with the book is that the narrative flow is interrupted by some very bizarre analogies. For example, a developing fetus in Emma Darwin (Charles's wife) is compared to a barnacle attaching itself to a host; and Charles undergoing an examination of his stomach is compared to a dissected barnacle being studied under a microscope. There are many more similar examples scattered throughout the book. The book does have its good points: we learn about what an incredibly hard job Darwin took on when he decided to devote years of his life to studying barnacles, due to the seemingly endless variations he encountered, complicated by the physical difficulty involved in dissecting and studying such tiny creatures. We also learn that Darwin didn't work in a vacuum. He corresponded with many other naturalists, some of them generous enough to loan Darwin barnacle specimens and fossils from their own collections. Unfortunately, the positive aspects of the book are too few to overcome the strange style of writing, compounded by the more serious problem of the author not accomplishing what she set out to do,

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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darwin and the Barnacle, 4 Jan 2004

By	"rdoyle5546" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darwin and the Barnacle (Hardcover)

Stott brings Darwin to life! An extraordinary story, so well crafted it brings a wonderful sense of humanity to the history of science. Primarily, 'Darwin and the Barnacle' brings into focus the central essence of Darwin as a human being. It presents Darwin's raw excitement with life, seemingly ignited while strolling studiously (almost romantically) along the foreshores. Which in turn encouraged him to undertake his famous tour of discovery upon the Beagle.

The sensitivity of the author helped develop in me an understanding of and interest in Charles Darwin as a person. I was moved by learning more about the man and how he lived his life; by the grief he experienced as his beloved daughter died, how his wife and he read to one another, about his ill health, his day to day activities and about his dedication if not dogged determination of his scientific observations.

In reading this book I came to understand how much time and energy Darwin dedicated in undertaking his labourious investigations into barnacles, how this hard work paved the way for honing his monumental work on the 'Origin of the Species'. Yet for me it is not a defence of evolution, but rather its Darwin who is placed under the microscope. It was literally as if Stott breathed life back into Darwin - which suddenly took on more importance than the revolutionary achievements that he is so well regarded for. 'Darwin and the Barnacle' is a great book I only wish I had read this book when I was a geological student.

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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Darwin and the Barnacle, 9 Aug 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Darwin and the Barnacle (Hardcover)

If you are coming to this book from a biological background, hoping to learn what it was about barnacles that so captivated Darwin's interest for eight long years, you may be dissapointed. This story is supperficially about barnacles, and makes me wonder whether the author has any knowledge or interest in them. As an emotional historical novel of that period of the life of Darwin I cannot fault it, but I was, perhaps mistakenly, expecting more. The author may be well read and may have even seen the actual manuscrips and many of the original samples, yet she appeared more interested in the style of Darwins handwriting then the actual biological import of his work. She goes into very little detail of the work, and by placing the barnacle at such prominance in the catchy title mistakenly implies a book about the relationship between a key figure in the understanding of Biology, and the organism which gained him that reputation. The author has failed to distance herself from her subject, and has failed completely to address the barnacle, or Darwin's work on the barnacle.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Darwins barnacle book
I am not going to write a long review, let's just say I eventually managed to get through this book.
This author is much more clever with words than me. Read more

Published 8 days ago by M. Dowding

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, but the barnacles do take second place
I put off reading this book because of bad reviews here at Amazon, and I'm sorry I did because it is absolutely fantastic. Read more

Published 8 months ago by emma who reads a lot

5.0 out of 5 stars a mind at work
a meticulous and poetic study of an important phase of Darwin's life - an important study of a great mind at work. Read more

Published on 23 Oct 2006 by Peter Thomas

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough
Ms Stott has written a thorough account of the years-almost decades- Darwin devoted to his studies of barnacles, (leading one of his children to ask a school friend"... Read more

Published on 17 Oct 2004 by H. Brookman

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating book
I found this book fascinating. It showed me that knowledge is not just a light bulb going on but a consequence of daily considered thought patterns nutting out the achieved... Read more

Published on 17 Jan 2004 by merleharris

4.0 out of 5 stars Evolution has its Hangers on
This is a rare book which sweeps you on from the first few pages, pursuing an idea to its conclusion. Read more

Published on 3 Jun 2003 by azscientist

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Darwin and the Barnacle (Paperback)

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