Will I love Darwin?

I love books that debunk widespread popular myths. Most people think Charles Darwin was an anti-religious crusader who sailed around the globe trying to find evidence to disprove the biblical story of creation. Many people have told me this; even more have written about it. They are all so wrong it would be hard to imagine them being more wrong.

Darwin, shortly after some studies to become a priest, boarded the Beagle with a Bible and a traditional Anglican faith—a faith that survived his many explorations as he circled the globe. His theory “tormented” him as it gestated for he… show more.

Put plainly, this biography of a key figure in the history of science is so beautifully written. Of course, it is knowledgeable and full of historical details, yet so enjoyable to read that I felt sorry it ended after a mere 800 pages.

The characters–eccentrics, heroes, villains–are many and various and expertly placed in their historical perspective. The authors' enthusiasm for their odd, unorthodox, and brilliant subject is very clear, as is their writing.

In Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist, Adrian Desmond & James Moore write almost poetically about a man whose passion for knowledge and understanding collided famously with the social norms of the time—and still do in some quarters. Their depiction of Charles Darwin provides the perfect foundation for my short biography, which focuses on the moment the notion of natural selection becomes the answer to Nature’s ultimate riddle.