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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
This is an account of a five-year voyage, of which only five weeks were spent in the Galapagos Islands. Darwin was only 22 years old when they set sail.
He was trained as a geologist, and it shows in his lengthy descriptions of geological features. He did collect several specimens of the flora and fauna that he encountered along the way, but these were sent to the experts back in England for their opinions. It was only after discussions with them that Darwin embarked on his idea of natural selection.
Darwin mentioned Captain Cook several times in this volume - he clearly admired Cook for his exploits. And Darwin seems to encourage world travel as a way of broadening one's mind - he seemed to have enjoyed his own journey on the Beagle. But after returning from that voyage, he never again left England, choosing to live out his days in scientific study at home.
He was trained as a geologist, and it shows in his lengthy descriptions of geological features. He did collect several specimens of the flora and fauna that he encountered along the way, but these were sent to the experts back in England for their opinions. It was only after discussions with them that Darwin embarked on his idea of natural selection.
Darwin mentioned Captain Cook several times in this volume - he clearly admired Cook for his exploits. And Darwin seems to encourage world travel as a way of broadening one's mind - he seemed to have enjoyed his own journey on the Beagle. But after returning from that voyage, he never again left England, choosing to live out his days in scientific study at home.
Oof this one is hard to review. It was very interesting to read Darwin for the first time, it was something I wanted to do for a very long time.
My main takeaways were:
-I liked his writing, clear and interesting.
-I thought it was hilarious how prejudiced he was against various taxa of animal, often categorising them as 'hideous' or 'ugly' (strange bias indeed for a man obsessed with barnacles). Even funnier because he clearly sees himself as an exceptionally impartial and scientific observer.
-I kept forgetting what era he was in, when he described coming upon some wondrous animal, enjoying it's beauty...then knocking it over the head with his geological hammer.
-This is the saddest line of any nature book I've ever read (on armadillos): "It seems almost a pity to kill such nice little animals, for as a Gaucho said, while sharpening his knife on the back of one, "Son tan mansos" (they are so quiet)."
-I was disgusted by his horrible opinions about most native people of most places. (notes below)
Much more of the book than I expected was about people, and it was genuinely hard to get through the very, *very* racist and incorrect opinions he had about almost everybody. It was frankly creepy how he basically rated every ethnic group's women on their beauty, and bizarre hearing him write around his own paradoxes...e.g. in one chapter he meets a Black lieutenant, describes him as very intelligent, had the cleanest and best ordered barracks in the area, etc. In another section of the book, he describes his companion showing kindness (honestly just basic decency, he literally just says hello) to a Black woman and is amazed by this man's ability to greet a 'degraded' person. Like... ?!?! Make it make sense, Darwin.
My main takeaways were:
-I liked his writing, clear and interesting.
-I thought it was hilarious how prejudiced he was against various taxa of animal, often categorising them as 'hideous' or 'ugly' (strange bias indeed for a man obsessed with barnacles). Even funnier because he clearly sees himself as an exceptionally impartial and scientific observer.
-I kept forgetting what era he was in, when he described coming upon some wondrous animal, enjoying it's beauty...then knocking it over the head with his geological hammer.
-This is the saddest line of any nature book I've ever read (on armadillos): "It seems almost a pity to kill such nice little animals, for as a Gaucho said, while sharpening his knife on the back of one, "Son tan mansos" (they are so quiet)."
-I was disgusted by his horrible opinions about most native people of most places. (notes below)
Much more of the book than I expected was about people, and it was genuinely hard to get through the very, *very* racist and incorrect opinions he had about almost everybody. It was frankly creepy how he basically rated every ethnic group's women on their beauty, and bizarre hearing him write around his own paradoxes...e.g. in one chapter he meets a Black lieutenant, describes him as very intelligent, had the cleanest and best ordered barracks in the area, etc. In another section of the book, he describes his companion showing kindness (honestly just basic decency, he literally just says hello) to a Black woman and is amazed by this man's ability to greet a 'degraded' person. Like... ?!?! Make it make sense, Darwin.
The great Carl Sagan once said, “What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you." That's what The Voyage of the Beagle felt like to me, spending 25 hours along side the greatest naturalist the world has ever seen, Charles Darwin, as he sailed around the world and examined the flora and fauna in the places the HMS Beagle landed. Darwin is at the top of my list of admired humans and it was just fantastic to take this historic trip with him, a trip that inspired the book that changed the world.
I listened to the audiobook which was expertly read by Barnaby Edwards. My only regret is that I did not listen to this prior to my August 2018 visit to his house, the Down House in Downe England. The second story of the house was made in to a museum and it featured many of the items Darwin brought back from his HMS Beagle exploration as well as a re-creation of his room on the Beagle complete with a hologram of the great man himself!
The Voyage of the Beagle covers the five year journey and Darwin gives a detailed account of the people and geography of each location visited in addition to the flora and fauna which you would expect a young naturalist (he was only 22 when the voyage started) to spend a lot of time studying. Many of the locations he visited were still relatively wild. Through his observations and discoveries you get the feel of how great a mind Darwin had. His writing is profound, and easily digestible by a layman such as myself.
He did much more exploration on horseback over land than I was aware of and he spent a significant amount of time exploring the South American continent which was being colonized by the Spanish. He spent time exploring a number of continent's islands, most noteworthy of which were the Galapagos. The accounts of the extermination and enslavement of native South Americans by the Spanish was shocking and disturbing. Much of his writings about the treatment of the natives and the fauna by the colonizers was depressing, and he went so far as to predict many of the native animal species and native humans would soon be extinct as the Europeans spread throughout the continent. He was correct.
Another interesting port of call was in Australia. His observations of its unique fauna and prediction of the future greatness of the continent were particularly interesting.
The book ends on a high note with Darwin eloquently summarizing his experience. This is after going on a rant about slavery after visiting Brazil for a second time after sailing around Africa. He recalls some of the inhumane scenes he witnessed on his journey and after setting sail from Brazil ("a land of moral debasement") vows to never again visit a slave country.
In short this was an utterly fascinating and enjoyable travelogue written by one of the greatest scientists to walk the planet. I will look for a nice hard copy of this book at a used bookstore as I would love to have this book lying around the house to revisit again and again.
I listened to the audiobook which was expertly read by Barnaby Edwards. My only regret is that I did not listen to this prior to my August 2018 visit to his house, the Down House in Downe England. The second story of the house was made in to a museum and it featured many of the items Darwin brought back from his HMS Beagle exploration as well as a re-creation of his room on the Beagle complete with a hologram of the great man himself!
The Voyage of the Beagle covers the five year journey and Darwin gives a detailed account of the people and geography of each location visited in addition to the flora and fauna which you would expect a young naturalist (he was only 22 when the voyage started) to spend a lot of time studying. Many of the locations he visited were still relatively wild. Through his observations and discoveries you get the feel of how great a mind Darwin had. His writing is profound, and easily digestible by a layman such as myself.
He did much more exploration on horseback over land than I was aware of and he spent a significant amount of time exploring the South American continent which was being colonized by the Spanish. He spent time exploring a number of continent's islands, most noteworthy of which were the Galapagos. The accounts of the extermination and enslavement of native South Americans by the Spanish was shocking and disturbing. Much of his writings about the treatment of the natives and the fauna by the colonizers was depressing, and he went so far as to predict many of the native animal species and native humans would soon be extinct as the Europeans spread throughout the continent. He was correct.
Another interesting port of call was in Australia. His observations of its unique fauna and prediction of the future greatness of the continent were particularly interesting.
The book ends on a high note with Darwin eloquently summarizing his experience. This is after going on a rant about slavery after visiting Brazil for a second time after sailing around Africa. He recalls some of the inhumane scenes he witnessed on his journey and after setting sail from Brazil ("a land of moral debasement") vows to never again visit a slave country.
In short this was an utterly fascinating and enjoyable travelogue written by one of the greatest scientists to walk the planet. I will look for a nice hard copy of this book at a used bookstore as I would love to have this book lying around the house to revisit again and again.
I found it surprisingly accessible, and at times both interesting and amusing. But for the most part it was very hard listening to the religious colonists superiority of the author. I think there is a lot of insight to be gained about humanity and society from observing this early colonizer observing the world at that time. But I was left with less certainty of my models of the world, and a general contempt of our species.
Fascinating, and really opened my eyes to the man I clearly know very little about.
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
If you enjoy natural history, you'll find Darwin's account of his five-year journey around the globe in "The Voyage of the Beagle" both accessible and interesting. His trip is recounted in exhaustive detail -- which I found really enjoyable when he was writing about a subject I was interested in and somewhat tedious when he was talking about geology, which I don't much care for reading about. The most enjoyable part of the book was the account of Jemmy Button, York Minster and Fuegia Basket, natives of Tierra del Fuego who were brought to live in England and then brought back home, followed by accounts of South American animals and plants. (Having read "Uttermost Part of the Earth" previously, it was fun to see another account of their trip.) Overall, the book is a fascinating look at the early exploration that helped shape Darwin's theory of evolution.
Interesting naturalist view before his famous theory. You see his growth from geology to naturalist with early insights into later theories. His ultimate observations and condemnation of slavery was surprising. Well worth the time
The great Carl Sagan once said, “What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you." That's what The Voyage of the Beagle felt like to me, spending 25 hours along side the greatest naturalist the world has ever seen, Charles Darwin, as he sailed around the world and examined the flora and fauna in the places the HMS Beagle landed. Darwin is at the top of my list of admired humans and it was just fantastic to take this historic trip with him, a trip that inspired the book that changed the world.
I listened to the audiobook which was expertly read by Barnaby Edwards. My only regret is that I did not listen to this prior to my August 2018 visit to his house, the Down House in Downe England. The second story of the house was made in to a museum and it featured many of the items Darwin brought back from his HMS Beagle exploration as well as a re-creation of his room on the Beagle complete with a hologram of the great man himself!
The Voyage of the Beagle covers the five year journey and Darwin gives a detailed account of the people and geography of each location visited in addition to the flora and fauna which you would expect a young naturalist (he was only 22 when the voyage started) to spend a lot of time studying. Many of the locations he visited were still relatively wild. Through his observations and discoveries you get the feel of how great a mind Darwin had. His writing is profound, and easily digestible by a layman such as myself.
He did much more exploration on horseback over land than I was aware of and he spent a significant amount of time exploring the South American continent which was being colonized by the Spanish. He spent time exploring a number of continent's islands, most noteworthy of which were the Galapagos. The accounts of the extermination and enslavement of native South Americans by the Spanish was shocking and disturbing. Much of his writings about the treatment of the natives and the fauna by the colonizers was depressing, and he went so far as to predict many of the native animal species and native humans would soon be extinct as the Europeans spread throughout the continent. He was correct.
Another interesting port of call was in Australia. His observations of its unique fauna and prediction of the future greatness of the continent were particularly interesting.
The book ends on a high note with Darwin eloquently summarizing his experience. This is after going on a rant about slavery after visiting Brazil for a second time after sailing around Africa. He recalls some of the inhumane scenes he witnessed on his journey and after setting sail from Brazil ("a land of moral debasement") vows to never again visit a slave country.
In short this was an utterly fascinating and enjoyable travelogue written by one of the greatest scientists to walk the planet. I will look for a nice hard copy of this book at a used bookstore as I would love to have this book lying around the house to revisit again and again.
I listened to the audiobook which was expertly read by Barnaby Edwards. My only regret is that I did not listen to this prior to my August 2018 visit to his house, the Down House in Downe England. The second story of the house was made in to a museum and it featured many of the items Darwin brought back from his HMS Beagle exploration as well as a re-creation of his room on the Beagle complete with a hologram of the great man himself!
The Voyage of the Beagle covers the five year journey and Darwin gives a detailed account of the people and geography of each location visited in addition to the flora and fauna which you would expect a young naturalist (he was only 22 when the voyage started) to spend a lot of time studying. Many of the locations he visited were still relatively wild. Through his observations and discoveries you get the feel of how great a mind Darwin had. His writing is profound, and easily digestible by a layman such as myself.
He did much more exploration on horseback over land than I was aware of and he spent a significant amount of time exploring the South American continent which was being colonized by the Spanish. He spent time exploring a number of continent's islands, most noteworthy of which were the Galapagos. The accounts of the extermination and enslavement of native South Americans by the Spanish was shocking and disturbing. Much of his writings about the treatment of the natives and the fauna by the colonizers was depressing, and he went so far as to predict many of the native animal species and native humans would soon be extinct as the Europeans spread throughout the continent. He was correct.
Another interesting port of call was in Australia. His observations of its unique fauna and prediction of the future greatness of the continent were particularly interesting.
The book ends on a high note with Darwin eloquently summarizing his experience. This is after going on a rant about slavery after visiting Brazil for a second time after sailing around Africa. He recalls some of the inhumane scenes he witnessed on his journey and after setting sail from Brazil ("a land of moral debasement") vows to never again visit a slave country.
In short this was an utterly fascinating and enjoyable travelogue written by one of the greatest scientists to walk the planet. I will look for a nice hard copy of this book at a used bookstore as I would love to have this book lying around the house to revisit again and again.
adventurous
dark
informative
slow-paced