Hailed as the definitive biography, this monumental work explains the character and paradoxes of Charles Darwin and opens up the full panorama of Victorian science, theology, and mores. The authors bring to life Darwin's reckless student days in Cambridge, his epic five-year voyage on the Beagle, and his grueling struggle to develop his theory of evolution.
Adrian Desmond and James Moore's gripping narrative reveals the great personal cost to Darwin of pursuing inflammatory truths—telling the whole story of how he came to his epoch-making conclusions.
“At last, a biography to match the man. . . . Darwin, his family, his colleagues, and his milieu come alive in this book. . . . Superbly written.” — Everett Menselson, Harvard University
“A riveting tour de force that meets the need for a new biography on the grand scale…Rarely have the dynamic relations between a scientist`s life and his theories been so fully, so forcefully recounted” – Roy Porter, Sunday Times (London)
“A book that makes such an astounding physical as well as cerebral impact is a very rare commodity indeed.” — Anthony Burgess, Observer
“Pick is up and you are hooked, by the racy writing, the memorable turns of phrase, the historical insights and the sheer bravado of their performance.” — William Bynum, New Scientist

Illustrations
Acknowledgements
A Devil's Chaplain?
1809-1831
1. Catching a Falling Christian
2. The Norrhern Athens
3. Sea-Mats & Seditious Science
4. Anglican Orders
5. Paradise & Punishment
6. The Man Who Walks with Henslow
7. Every Man for Himself
1831-1836
8. My Final Exit
9. A Chaos of Delight
10. Troubled Spirits from Another World
11. Shaken Foundations
12. Colonial Life
13. Temples of Nature
1836-1842
14. A Peacock Admiring His Tail
15. Reforming Nature
16. Tearing Down the Barriers
17. Mental Rioting
18. Marriage & Malthusian Respectability
19. The Dreadful War
1842-1851
20. The Extreme Verge of the World
21. Murder
22. Illformed Little Monsters
23. Al Diabolo
24. My Water Doctor
25. Our Bitter & Cruel Loss
1851-1860
26. A Gentleman with Capital
27. Ugly Facts
28. Gunships & Grog Shops
29. Horrid Wretches Like Me
30. A Low & Lewd Nature
31. What Would a Chimpanzee Say?
32. Breaking Cover
1860-1871
33. More Kicks than Halfpence
34. From the Womb of the Ape
35. A Living Grave
36. Emerald Beauty
37. Sex, Politics, & the X
38. Disintegrating Speculations
1871-1882
39. Pause, Pause, Pause
40. A W retched Bigot
41. Never an Atheist
42. Down among the Worms
43. The Final Experiment
44. An Agnostic in the Abbey
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index