• Charles Darwin revolutionized our ideas about the natural world and our place in it by introducing the concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest, and his ideas still provoke controversy today.
• Editor Gillian Beer has writtten extensively about Darwin and about scientific writing in its cultural context. Her wide-ranging introduction considers the development of Darwin's ideas, the scientific context, the nature of his theories and the impact of his work on his contemporaries.
• Includes a Register of Writers referred to in the text of the Origin, a Glossary of Scientific Terms and an Index.

New to this edition

• A Postscript to the Introduction considers in detail the first reactions to the work and Darwin's responses to criticism; it considers the controversy in the light of the recent revival of Creationism and Intelligent Design and shows how little has changed.
• New and up-to-date bibliography.
• Reset text.

Readership: Readers interested in science and the history of science, in evolution and in Darwin and the religious controversy surrounding him; teachers and students of the history of science, anthropology, literature, especially Victorian literature, history, biology, medicine.