The Origin of Species

Charles Darwin, 1859

Ideas that changed the world

Darwin develops an argument about natural selection from variations among living things.

Read the book Contents

Length: 16 chapters
Reading time: About 13 hr 36 min
Words: 194,300

About the book

Darwin begins with cultivated plants and domesticated animals, asking why individuals vary and how differences persist. He then turns towards variation in nature, where even the distinction between a species and a variety raises questions that resist a simple definition.

This is an extended scientific argument, built through examples, qualifications and comparison. Its movement from familiar breeding practices to broader explanations makes the reasoning itself central to the reading experience. Attention to Darwin's uncertainties matters alongside his claims: he repeatedly asks what evidence can establish, and where a term may conceal a problem.

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Ideas that changed the world

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Charles Darwin died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original epigraphs, an historical sketch of the progress of opinion on the origin of species, previously to the publication of the first edition of this work, introduction.