The Red Queen

Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

By: Matt Ridley

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Referring to Lewis Carroll's Red Queen from Through the Looking-Glass, a character who has to keep running to stay in the same place, Matt Ridley demonstrates why sex is humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators. The Red Queen answers dozens of other riddles of human nature and culture - including why men propose marriage, the method behind our maddening notions of beauty, and the disquieting fact that a woman is more likely to conceive a child by an adulterous lover than by her husband.

Brilliantly written, The Red Queen offers an extraordinary new way of interpreting the human condition and how it has evolved.

©1993 Matt Ridley (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

Insightful, Entertaining and Educational

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have recommended this book more then any other in my library because i believe that it can help with relationships, personal and professional. It gives an insightful glimpse into the interaction that goes on in social dynamics too often not understood or realized yet the effects of those elements are echoed in our day to day lives.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

This book is eye opening! Did you know that attraction is INVOLUNTARY? Yes, yes with some that is obvious but it is also something that you could enhance through other means then the physical. This book gives you the science behind that way better then any of those hair-brained dating books.

Any additional comments?

Read it. It's good for you.

Information overload, but amazing.

If you enjoy sex too much and want to knock that enjoyment down a peg or two, listen to this book. It offers an in-depth look at human sexual behavior, relationships, attraction, and homosexuality in nothing but cold hard facts.
It will take your idea of love and contort it into an emotionless instinct-driven beast that can never be unseen. Getting over a breakup? Listen to this. It will make you feel like a single celled organism because of your petty heart broken emotions. I listened to it while going through a breakup, now I don't think I ever want to be in a relationship again because of how unknowingly biologically driven humans are.
It makes you realize we are far from evolved to the complex divine beings we think we are.

Very Enlightening

This book is very well written and I highly recommend it. Information like this is hard to come by. There is so much nonsense out there about women, dating, and human behavior, but this book seems more based in fact and I trust the content. Narration is excellent. If you have any interest in this topic then this book is worth listening to.

very hard to understand

there is a lot of information but it is very disorganized,hard to put together or follow us a collection of ideas but after 12 hours since there is no recap development you forget most of it, the narrator has a British accent so it makes it even harder to understand

Terrifyingly good

Incredible balance of high density content, thoroughness and wonderful clarity.

Matt Ridley is up there with Yuval Harari and Richard Dawkins

Wow

An insightful and thought provoking look into human nature.
I don't think the goal of this book was to provide clear and definite answers about our sexual nature or evolution. Instead I believe this book provides a fascinating perspective on why we should be striving to learn more about how our sexual selection processes shaped our nature and vice versa.
As fascinated as I was by this book I will say that the first third of it is pretty tough to get into. But when you get into the human-focused areas of the book it becomes VERY hard to hit the pause button!
I would encourage anyone with preconceived notions on polarizing topics to put those away when reading. The author does a nice job of describing aspects of gender differences from an objective point of view. Right about the time you may think he is going to show gender biases he often counters himself with the opposite perspective. And he does all of this with cited evidence.
I enjoyed this read/listen and would recommend it for anyone with any kind of interest in human evolution.

If I were ten Years Old...

... I would want to be a microbiologist! Finished Ancestor's Tale by R. Dawkins and loved it, like the story of asking a fish, how's the water... and the fish answers... water? what water? The chemical world that is us seems far more distant than the edge of the visable universe. I'm reading Red Queen on paper and am now downloading it to my iPOD. The goal is... what/why is sex? It's a better question than it sounds... but I'm still struggling with the Hox gene and how it knows where it is. This is a great mystery and if you liked Ancestor's Tale, you'll find this is a fine trip into that next dimension... water? what water?

Data Driven Analysis of Sexual Selection

Matt Ridley writes great books. What makes them great is the abundance of information he presents to justify his conclusions as well as his willingness to admit when a conclusion is mere speculation. For anyone interested in evolutionary biology, this is a great book. Two thumbs up (though he does not focus on why only apes have opposable thumbs).

Informative scholarly review of human evolution

This is a scholarly treatment of evolution. Of course, procreation is the vehicle of evolution. The first third of the book is all about one celled creatures, frogs, pea hens and birds with some random chimps and whales thrown in. It is a little tough to get through all of that. The author does a reasonable job of identifying all of the prevailing theories. He then attempts to use to other animals to substantiate or diminish those theories.

Only people interested in documentaries are likely to find this book appealing. I found many of the concepts interesting; Do we know they are true? As the author concludes in his summary, who know what errors abound in his work and the work of others. The study of this field is in its infancy.

Well done! More convincing than sex at dawn.

I really enjoyed sex at dawn but found the handling of jealousy unconvincing. in addition the careless disposal of long term pair bonds did not align with it's prominence. The red queen takes all of these factors into account and does a much more scientific analysis to explain logical and biological reasons for them to coexist. Well done Matt Ridley.