Spine and Cover for Darwin's The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. (original) (raw)

Spine and Cover

Darwin's The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

1890

"Original green cloth, boards with blind-ruled borders and panelled in blind, spine gilt"

Octavo

John Murray, Publisher

[See commentary below]

Image, caption, and commentary included by permission of Sotheran's of Sackville Street, London (The longest established antiquarian booksellers in the world — York 1761).

In this work, which complements On the Origin of Species, Darwin expounded fully his theory of sexual selection and discussed at length the link he recognised between human and ape lineage: "In the Origin Darwin had avoided discussing the place occupied by Homo sapiens in the scheme of natural selection, stating only that 'light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.' Twelve years later he made good his promise with The descent of man, in which he compared man's physical and psychological characteristics to similar traits in apes and other animals, showing how even man's mind and moral sense could have developed through evolutionary processes. In discussing man's ancestry Darwin did not claim that man was directly descended from apes as we know them today, but stated simply that the extinct ancestors of Homo sapiens would have to be classified among the primates; however, this statement, as misinterpreted by the popular press, caused a furor second only to that raised by the Origin" (Norman, p. 218). Freeman points out that in The Descent "the word 'evolution' occurs, for the first time in any of Darwin's works" (p. 129). This book further enhanced Darwin's fame — if not his popularity — and is one of the most significant works in the evolutionary canon." — Sotheran's site

Bibliography

Darwin, Charles Robert.The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. 2nd ed. London: W. Clowes and Sons for John Murray, 1890.

Last modified 19 March 2008