The Reluctant Mr. Darwin

Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution

By: David Quammen

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

In September 1838, a young Englishman named Charles Darwin hit upon the idea that "natural selection" among competing individuals would lead to wondrous adaptations and species diversity. Twenty-one years passed between that epiphany and publication of On the Origin of Species. The human drama and scientific controversy of that time constitute a fascinating, tangled tale that illuminates this cautious naturalist who sparked an intellectual revolution.

Drawing from Darwin's secret notebooks and personal letters, David Quammen has sketched a vivid life portrait of the man whose work remains controversial today.

©2006 David Quammen (P)2006 BBC Audiobooks America

Critic reviews

"Grover Gardner is a first-rate reader who seems genuinely to enjoy recounting the foibles of Darwin's life. An excellent general audience title." (Library Journal)

"Grover Gardner’s reading pulses with the excitement of Quammen’s quest. As the author sifts through Darwin’s developing insights and personality quirks...Gardner is perfectly alert to the author’s subtle irony and humor..." (Audiofile)

"It's easy to hear why PW named Grover Gardner Narrator of the Year in '05. He uses inflection, stress, rhythm and his rich vocal range to create an easy and often amusing conversational style." (Publishers Weekly)

Short but Excellent!

Wonderful for such a short audiobook and brilliantly narrated. Filled with relevant personal information and evaluation of historical significance. Does not shy away from criticism for an appropriately revered but complex man.

Narration was excellently paced and engaging. I found the author to add scientific background, social and cultural significance, and humor in a perfect mix! Highly recommended

Good book

This is a good book that focuses on a specific part of Darwin's life. If you are looking for a complete biography, this isn't the book for you.But the synopsis describes the work well, and it succeeds admirably.

think

loved it . a chance to get to know Mr. Darwin. now to see the genome discoveries.

worth the time

love or revile the ideas, they are worth revisiting. this expose of the man and his times is more than welcome and quite inspiring. thanks to Mr Quammen, but greater still is credit to Mr Darwin

The Reluctant Mr Darwin

Brilliantly encapsulated Darwin's career concisely in accessible language . The narrator had an authoritative voice and was easy to follow. Enjoyed the experience.

Darwin portrait.

This is a well-written and entertaining book. It would be a fine introduction to Darwin and the Origin of Species. Grover Gardner is the best reader of non-fiction I have heard.

A very pleasant surprise

I picked this one up during one of Audible's $5 sales. I didn't know much about it but, as a science enthusiast and educator, I wanted to know more about Darwin and gave it a try. I finished it with a deeper reverence for Darwin's genius and an understanding of who he was as a human and scholar.

I enjoyed the writer's style and appreciate the amount of research he did to help the reader understand what Darwin's contemporaries believed. It's rather a mystery to us now that Darwin conceived of natural selection and let decades pass without publishing (see Bryson's "Short History of Nearly Everything"). This book explains why Darwin delayed and helped me better understand natural selection and, as I said, Darwin's genius to conceive of it at a time when other "biologists" attributed everything to God's handiwork. Give it a try and I think you'll enjoy!

Darwin as a person

I like how Quammen revealed Darwins human side. Historically very interesting and worth the read.

A paranoid gentle honest man.

Well written and well narrated book. The general intellectual environment is well described. Not too detailed and mentioned main points very well. It however had a bit too much of the author's opinions. Overall an enjoyable listen.

Another superb Quammen book

I loved this book. It made me want to reread 'The Origin of Species' or listen to it on Audible. Quammen urges that we read the first edition, and I wonder if that edition is one of 13 available on Audible. I have quite a collection of Quammen science books now, and this isn't one of his best, but it is very good. The heart of a Quammen book is the interaction with living scientists, providing background to their scientific books and articles, which Quammen vividly describes. His scientific insights are superb, none better than in his 2012 Spillover that predicted our current SARS coronovirus pandemic. Here, we get a bit of that, as Quammen describes some contemporary scientists' views of Darwin's magesterial 'Origin.' I'm a benthic ecologist, so I particularly liked Quammen's descriptions of Darwin's 7+ years of research on barnacles, and his work on his final book on earthworms. Darwin also described the role of corals in creating island atolls, although that well established Darwin theory is now under attack. Quammen may have underestimated the importance of the worm book to benthic ecologists as Darwin introduced and tested with field experiments the first bioturbation model, describing how the vertical movement of sediment by worms can bury Darwin's introduced chalk layer, stones, and even monuments. Quammen is an acerbic writer, but one of his zingers may be a bit too caustic. He refers to Stephen Jay Gould's 2002 1464-p page final book 'The Structure of Evolutionary Theory' as an intellectual doorstop. Cruel, since Gould can't defend himself, but then again, I own and love most of Gould's books---he was a prolific writer-- but have never been able to finish his magnum opus (available for <$10 at Thrift books).