The Origin of the Species Rev Abridged

As much as anyone in the modern era, Charles Darwin changed the course of humanthought. The impact on Westerncivilization of his seminalwork has been broad and deep: notonly the biological sciences but also socialthought, philosophy, ethics, religion, andliteraturehave all been shaped and reshaped byevolutionary concepts. Here, in what PaulMoody(writing in Victorian Studies) has called amasterly condensation, is a classic editionof Darwin’s The Origin ofSpecies . It retains allof the substance of the originalbook, but only the essential elements of itsprofuse detail. PhilipAppleman, the editor ofDarwin, a Norton Critical Edition ( the best Darwin anthology on themarket, accordingto StephenJay Gould), has cut deftly to theessence of Darwin’s classic, losing none of thecontinuity or flavor of theoriginal and makingavailablean edition that modern readers will not find overpowering. This revision includes a newintroduction by ProfessorAppleman thatperceptively traces Darwin’s influence on theworld of ideas as well as threeadditionalchapters fromDarwin’s work.