In the introduction to this book, Diana Preston wrote, "Like many of his contemporaries, Darwin was cheerfully and unashamedly racist, chauvinistic, nationalistic, and sexist." I almost put this book down right then and there thinking, "Oh great, another anachronistic excoriation of a major historical figure." Fortunately, after this obligatory nod to the woke mob, Preston managed to get down to the business of writing an excellent biography of Darwin with a focus on how his time aboard the Beagle impacted his evolving views on natural selection and evolution.

I like how Preston pointed out multiple times that Darwin wasn't the first person to believe in some form of evolution. Many of his teachers and others in the two generations before him did hold some sort of evolutionary view. What Darwin did was become the first person to demonstrate the means by which that evolution took place. In effect, others said "nature evolved" and Darwin said, "here's how." Whether one agrees or not, the author did her research and demonstrated through Darwin's diaries and letters how he came to develop this understanding through a readable and gripping narrative.

This was a very interesting read. That I really enjoyed reading. I really tried to finish it in one day ad it was such a fantastic book but sleep won. It is a very well wrote book that follows so well and is obviously very well researched. I loved how the footnotes for this book were at the bottom of each page which is so helpful and so much better than the end of the book. It is a long book as it is packed so full of interesting information but it held my attention throughout. I loved how the book had some wonderful pictures to break up the text and give it that extra dimension. It was a fascinating book that concentrated on Darwin from his rejection to travel on ghe beagle to his actual journey on it and his life afterwards until his death. I have read lots of books about Darwin and loved that this book held information I had never read before which was just brilliant. If you want to read a book about Darwins travel on ghe beagle then this book is definitely for you I certainly recommend it.

So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this very interesting book that I just loved. It's definitely a page turner. 

The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/the-evolution-of-charles-darwin-by-diana-preston-grove-atlantic-4-stars
Either under my name or ladyreading365

Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle

The full title is The Evolution of Charles Darwin: The Epic Voyage of the Beagle That Forever Changed Our View of Life on Earth by Diana Preston.

And it is an extensive story of that journey which was so important for our understanding of the development of life and how life and the Earth changed over time. At almost 500 pages it is rather long and detailed for the casual reader. There are extensive quotes which made the book enjoyable for me.

I thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read it in advance. The book was published October 4 so It should be readily available at you favorite source

When Charles Darwin signed up to voyage on the Beagle he was a young man looking for adventure, When the Beagle returned to England five years later the pattern of his life was set, although he could not know it at the time.

Diana Preston has done an excellent job of conveying the voyage of ship and man. Her conversational style, backed up by her voluminous research, makes for an enjoyable reading experience. There is a lot to learn from this book, and it gives the reader a great deal to think about. The voyage on the Beagle was the making of the mature Charles Darwin, and thus a great influence on the modern world as we know it. Highly recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I enjoyed this story of Darwin’s journey around the globe and traveling back to the 19th century where ocean voyages were very different from the vacation cruises I’ve experienced. I liked that Preston included factual data with quotes and pictures. I found this book to be an interesting exploration of Darwin’s adventures and findings.

ARC was provided by Grove Atlantic and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Pub Date: October 4, 2022

I enjoyed this book. In particular, I liked the conversational writing style and the illustrations. I usually don’t like books overly reliant on quotes but in this case, the selective use of quotes worked very well. Diana Preston also gives some history of the places Darwin visited. The pacing was also very good, with no lingering on any specific point. I always liked geography, so I made sure that I had access to maps whenever I read the book so I could follow along with The Beagle. Overall, I think that this book is well worth reading for anyone interested in evolution. Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the digital review copy.