Charles Darwin's Letters: A Selection, 1825-1859

Description

In May of 2007, the Darwin Correspondence Project, based at Cambridge University, announced that it had placed an additional 5,000 largely unpublished Darwin letters onto its excellent web site (darwin-online.org.uk). This website is a treasurehouse of the first order for anyone interested in Darwin and Victornian intellectual history. Of course, Cambridge University Press has published a number of volumes in its Darwin correspondence series. However, for a quick dip into Darwin's letters, to get a feel from what is there, this collection covering the period up to the publication in 1859 of "Origin" is a handy introduction. The book has a Foreword by the late Stephen Jay Gould which places the letters into the context of what as going on in Victorian science. The editor, Frederick Burkhardt, has added a helpfujl Introduction and "Editor's Note." The letters are in chronological order, the first being written in 1825 while Darwin was studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Next are letters relating to Cambridge, the offer to make the Beagle voyage, the voyage to South America, and Homeward Bound. So there is plenty of coverage of Darwin's epic trip. But the letters continue after his return up until publication of the Origin. The editor has included some helpful notes, a Biographical Register, Bibliography and Bibliographical Note, and suggestions for further reading (a bit out of date since the book was put together in 1996). All together a very nice and inexpensive package loaded with interesting information and providing the opportunity to come more directly into contact with that most scintilating of minds, that of Darwin.