DARWIN, Charles.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle, under the command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N. from 1832 to 1836. First separate edition of this eyewitness account of one of the most influential expeditions in human history, describing what Darwin judged "by far the most important event in my life" and recording the fieldwork that led to the Origin of Species (Life and Letters I, p. 61).These records are "famous as the genesis of [Darwin's] theory of evolutionary biology" (Hill), transforming his horizons from an intended career as a country parson and seeding a determination to establish himself as a gentleman scientist. The Journal, known ever since as The Voyage of the Beagle, is renowned among Darwin's books as "undoubtedly the most often read and stand[ing] second only to On the Origin of Species as the most often printed" (p. 31). The Journal was first published early in 1839 as Volume III of the Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. This separate edition was printed from the same sheets, but with two preliminary leaves cancelled and one leaf discarded: the cancelled leaves now credit Darwin's election to the Royal Society, which took place after the publication of the Narrative set.

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