Odyssey: Young Charles Darwin, the Beagle, and the Voyage that changed the world.

After reading the article Evolutionary Road: Darwin’s great theory was years in the making in the American Scholar, I started reading the author’s (Tom Chaffin) new book Odyssey: Young Charles Darwin, the Beagle, and the Voyage that changed the world.

To me, the cover is simply beautiful. I like the nautical ropes that stretch across the page and encircle the potholes with images of the Beagle & young Darwin. The background of restless sea is a brilliant touch.

It will be superfluous to add any comments to the many well-deserved 5-star reviews already written. From Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, and author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place.

“This retelling of Charles Darwin’s momentous journey on HMS Beagle  offers a fresh and lively narrative in the round. We learn of Darwin’s appreciation of literature, his many land expeditions, his friends and colleagues on the ship, and the individuals who helped him gather a magnificent collection of natural history specimens and memories to last the rest of his life. Tom Chaffin links these transformative experiences to Odysseus’s celebrated wanderings and reveals the ways in which the young Darwin developed into a remarkable thinker.”

From Patrick Armstrong, Adjunct Professor of Geography at the University of Western Australia, and author of Darwin’s Other Islands, Darwin’s Luck, and All Things Darwin.

“Tom Chaffin’s Odyssey is a masterpiece. While focused on Darwin‘s Beagle travels, this lively and detailed, tightly-woven narrative also provides a splendid overview of the great Victorian naturalist’s life. Published and unpublished contemporary writings by Darwin and others, as well as up-to-date scholarship, lend colour to depicted events. All the while, the flesh-and-blood Darwin comes shining through.”

An excerpt of the book was published in Daily Beast recently which one may listen to as well. (Image: The Print Collector/Getty Images/ HMS ‘Beagle’ laid ashore, Rio Santa Cruz, Patagonia, 1834)

Another interesting excerpt entitled ‘A Disgrace to His Family: Meet Charles Darwin, somewhat aimless student and excellent beetle hunter’ was published in Lapham’s Quarterly in February 2022.

Reading the book brings back many happy memories of the characters and events I myself am quite familiar with, in my work for Darwin Online. Needless to say, I’m particularly gratified to see Darwin Online appreciated.