> Skip to content
  • Published: 25 September 1998
  • ISBN: 9780375751462
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 720
  • RRP: $24.99

The Origin of Species

150th Anniversary Edition




An accessible trade paperback edition of Darwin's most celebrated work, which introduced the world to the groundbreaking theories of evolution and natural selection.

Introduction by Edward J. Larson
 
Perhaps the most readable and accessible of the great works of scientific inquiry, The Origin of Species sold out its first printing on the very day it was published in 1859. Theologians quickly labeled Charles Darwin the most dangerous man in England and, as the Saturday Review noted, the uproar over the book quickly “passed beyond the bounds of the study and lecture-room into the drawing-room and the public street.” Based largely on Darwin’s experience as a naturalist while on a five-year voyage aboard H. M. S. Beagle, The Origin of Species set forth a theory of evolution and natural selection that challenged contemporary beliefs about divine providence and the immutability of species. This Modern Library edition includes a Foreword by the Pulitzer Prize–winning science historian Edward J. Larson, an introductory historical sketch, and a glossary Darwin later added to the original text.

  • Published: 25 September 1998
  • ISBN: 9780375751462
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 720
  • RRP: $24.99

About the author

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shropshire, England. He was educated at Edinburgh University and Christ's College, Cambridge. Between 1831 and 1836 he travelled in South America aboard the H.M.S Beagle to explore the geology and natural history of the area, and published his journal of findings in 1839. His most famous book On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, appeared in 1859 and is arguably one of the most important scientific works ever published. The theories of evolution and natural selection proposed in this book and The Descent of Man (1871) are still the subject of intense debate and scrutiny today. Charles Darwin died on 19 April, 1882 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Also by Charles Darwin

See all