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A review by kevin_shepherd
The Voyage of the Beagle by Michael Neve, Charles Darwin, Janet Browne
5.0
Charles Darwin set sail onboard the HMS Beagle on the 27th of December, 1831 and didn’t return to England until the 2nd of October, 1836. An accounting of this endeavor’s observations and discoveries was first published in 1839 as “Charles Darwin’s Journal and Remarks.” It was so popular that it was republished in 1845, this time as “Charles Darwin’s Journal of Researches,” and then again in 1905 as “The Voyage of the Beagle.”
Rather than digressing into some long winded synopsis of a book that has been Goodreads reviewed over 500 times, I am going to limit myself to just three elements that caught my attention (you’re welcome):
One. Even though Darwin’s theory of natural selection was far from being fully formulated and articulated (see On the Origin of Species, 1859), the fingerprints of species mutability (read: Evolution) are all over this book. For example:
“…Chionis alba [the snowy sheathbill] is an inhabitant of the Antarctic regions. It feeds on seaweed and shells on the tidal rocks. Although not webfooted, from some unaccountable habit it is frequently met with far out at sea. This small family of birds is one of those which, from its varied relations to other families, although at present offering only difficulties to the systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand scheme common to the present and the past ages on which organized beings have been created.”
Two. Compared to his contemporaries, Darwin was quite politically progressive…
“…it is impossible to doubt but that the extreme liberalism of these countries must ultimately lead to good results. The very general toleration of foreign religions, the regard paid to the means of education, the freedom of the press, the facilities offered to all foreigners and especially, as I am bound to add, to everyone professing the humblest pretensions to science, should be recollected with gratitude by those who have visited Spanish South America.”
And Three. Darwin was undeniably a staunch opponent of slavery. His abolitionist assertions are reiterated over and over again throughout Voyage of the Beagle—so much so that I had a hard time choosing just one example…
“On the 19th of August we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate.”
To call Charles Darwin a “naturalist” is a time-saving summation—otherwise every biographer would have to write: biologist, geologist, anthropologist, biochemist, ecologist, paleontologist, botanist, zoologist, climatologist, ichthyologist, volcanologist, ornithologist, ethnologist, primatologist, etc., etc., etc.. All of these vocations are abundantly evident here; making this one of the best reads in history for science nerds (like me!).
Rather than digressing into some long winded synopsis of a book that has been Goodreads reviewed over 500 times, I am going to limit myself to just three elements that caught my attention (you’re welcome):
One. Even though Darwin’s theory of natural selection was far from being fully formulated and articulated (see On the Origin of Species, 1859), the fingerprints of species mutability (read: Evolution) are all over this book. For example:
“…Chionis alba [the snowy sheathbill] is an inhabitant of the Antarctic regions. It feeds on seaweed and shells on the tidal rocks. Although not webfooted, from some unaccountable habit it is frequently met with far out at sea. This small family of birds is one of those which, from its varied relations to other families, although at present offering only difficulties to the systematic naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand scheme common to the present and the past ages on which organized beings have been created.”
Two. Compared to his contemporaries, Darwin was quite politically progressive…
“…it is impossible to doubt but that the extreme liberalism of these countries must ultimately lead to good results. The very general toleration of foreign religions, the regard paid to the means of education, the freedom of the press, the facilities offered to all foreigners and especially, as I am bound to add, to everyone professing the humblest pretensions to science, should be recollected with gratitude by those who have visited Spanish South America.”
And Three. Darwin was undeniably a staunch opponent of slavery. His abolitionist assertions are reiterated over and over again throughout Voyage of the Beagle—so much so that I had a hard time choosing just one example…
“On the 19th of August we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate.”
To call Charles Darwin a “naturalist” is a time-saving summation—otherwise every biographer would have to write: biologist, geologist, anthropologist, biochemist, ecologist, paleontologist, botanist, zoologist, climatologist, ichthyologist, volcanologist, ornithologist, ethnologist, primatologist, etc., etc., etc.. All of these vocations are abundantly evident here; making this one of the best reads in history for science nerds (like me!).