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Book Summary and Reviews of Charles Darwin by Janet Browne

Charles Darwin by Janet Browne

Charles Darwin

The Power of Place

by Janet Browne

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  • Published:
  • Sep 2002, 608 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

In 1858, Charles Darwin was forty-nine years old, a gentleman scientist living quietly at Down House in the Kent countryside. He was not yet a focus of debate; his "big book on species" still lay on his desk as a manuscript. For more than twenty years he had been accumulating material for it, puzzling over the questions that it raised, trying to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion, and wanting to be certain that his startling theory of evolution was correct.

It is at this point that the concluding volume of Janet Browne's magisterial biography opens. Beginning with the extraordinary events that finally forced the Origin of Species into print, we come to the years of fame and controversy. Here, Browne does dramatic justice to all aspects of the Darwinian revolution, from a fascinating examination of the Victorian publishing scene to a survey of the debates between scientists and churchmen over evolutionary theory. At the same time, she presents a wonderfully sympathetic and authoritative picture of Darwin himself.

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Book Awards

  • award image National Book Critics Circle Awards, 2002

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Now she has published the much-anticipated second half, and it is more spellbinding than the first, which ended on a cliffhanger of sorts." - PW

"Browne, a zoologist and historian of science, offers a frank, comprehensive, and detailed account of the last half of Darwin's life" - Library Journal

"A richly detailed, vivid, and definitive portrait with not a word wasted: the best life of Charles Darwin in the modern literature." - Kirkus

This information about Charles Darwin was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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More Information

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