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On the Origin of Species  By  cover art

On the Origin of Species

By: Charles Darwin
Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
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Publisher's summary

Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and a life-long committed Darwinist, abridges and reads this special audio version of Charles Darwin's famous book. A literally world-changing book, Darwin put forward the anti-religious and scientific idea that humans in fact evolved over millions of generations from animals, starting with fish, all the way up through the ranks to apes, then to our current form.

Dawkin's passion for his subject and hero are clear and exciting for listeners, who, whatever their religious or scientific views, will be intrigued and captivated by this involving production of arguably one of the most important books of all time.

©2006 CSA Telltapes Ltd. (P)2006 CSA Telltapes Ltd.
  • Abridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

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You need to know.<br />

Everyone should have a basic understanding of where we come from. This book will provide you with that knowledge.

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So much better with Dawkins reading

My first introduction to On the Origin of Species was with LibriVox, a free community of people who will read an individual chapter of a book and then parcelled together so people can read these older books. Well unfortunately a lot of the narrator's didn't have the quality recording equipment or maybe had issues otherwise that made it very hard to follow the book.

Dawkins rendition of this book was marvelous and I learned things I had not learned previously and I'm very grateful for this edition. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to understand how evolution became the powerhouse theory it is today, it surely has stood the test of time. The extent and pains of which Darwin went through to ensure the science was sound was huge because he knew the criticism was going to be harsh and he even proposes in the book many of the questions that theologians today still offer up as holes in evolution.

Darwin acknowledged that there would be things that would be very difficult if not impossible to "prove" and that right there to me is the sign of a true scientist, someone who can pick a part their own hypotheses and try to get to the right answers, because accuracy is all that matters.

Thank you to the author and thank you to the narrator, without these books I unfortunately would never be able to read.

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Understanding the World Around Me! Loved it!

If you could sum up On the Origin of Species in three words, what would they be?

1. Dense
2. Eye Opening
3. Genius

What was one of the most memorable moments of On the Origin of Species?

Wow... Strangely the inter story section on ants.

What does Richard Dawkins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Yes! He British accent and poison for the subject mater.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was just thinking we could move mankind one step forward if everyone would read this book.

Any additional comments?

This was Great!

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breathtaking audiobook

An amazing piece of work, so remarkable, being read with such passion by Richard Dawkins.

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Charles Darwin bravo

The clear prose and straightforward reasoning of Mr Darwin. What an exemplary man! What a triumph of clear sight

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So glad I finally read this!

Richard Dawkins' narration of this book is excellent -- I enjoyed it immensely, however, without my semester of physical anthropology, the essential points would have required much more mental attention.

Dawkins inserts clarifying information throughout the book and while Darwin's writing is wonderfully clear, I think more of Dawkins' notes and updates would have been an enhancement.

I was surprised to see how diverse Darwin's background research was and how elegantly he wrote. He anticipated counter-arguments to his ideas and cleanly, systematically eliminated them. As he concluded each level of his argument, the gaps in his knowledge (due to gaps in scientific progress) required that he make certain logical leaps and assumptions. These were especially interesting because he was invariably correct, as time has shown.

Dawkins abridged the book to some degree which makes me leary - I want to know what the author intended the reader to know. And because the subject is still (astoundingly) controversial, abridging anything of this nature will likely invite criticism.

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Easier to read that I had expected.

For years I have heard and been taught the basics of Darwin. I have always been reluctant to read such a book as this due the my own fear of understanding. This is such an easy and understandable book that I have already recommended it to many friends. Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did.

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Masterful.

It's obvious why this book changed the world. We have many thanks to give Darwin.

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Excellent!

A masterpiece no doubt . Probably the most important book of all times.
Readers/listeners can appreciate the painstaking, and time consuming observations taken, as well as collaboration, and correspondence between Naturalist of the time. All in the search of objective truths as it relates to the origin, and changes of life forms.

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Mandatory listening for everyone

As you know, this is mandatory listening for everyone interested in science and evolution. However, it is not easy to listen to, which is partly why everyone has opinions on evolution but very few have read this book.

Richard Dawkins is a fantastic narrator. It’s the content of the book that makes it challenging. It’s more of a technical scientific report than a “book” as we think of it. I’m highly educated with a doctorate degree, but even for me the wording used and the focus on non-human subjects makes this book challenging to pay attention to. I’m interested in human and primate evolution, and neither is discussed here. It focuses on the much safer topics of plants and non-primate animals. This is probably because applying Natural Selection to humans would have been too controversial for Darwin to present at the time, while also considering this was early in his career.

Even though I have an enthusiastic interest in Darwin and evolution, my brain mightily struggled to stay focused on this content. It is probably better read from a book than listened to. However, the evidence and arguments Darwin presents here will cause anyone with an intelligent and open mind to see the force of Natural Selection all around us. It is an undeniable and self-evident phenomenon that can only be missed due to active ignorance.

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