Evolution's Captain: The Story of the Kidnapping That Led to Charles Darwin's Voyage Aboard the Beagle
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.99 (787 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0060088788 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-01-10 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Happy! This is an outstanding book - I have read it before and wanted to have my own copy - it arrived much sooner than I expected - I think just a few days and was in excellent condition. all's good!. "The only thing that bothered Fitzroy was Darwin's face." Poor Robert Fitzroy has been relegated to the footnotes section of history.oh yes, wasn't he the captain of "The Beagle"? Yes he was, but he was much more. He was also a member of Parliament, a governor of New Zealand, and he founded the British government's Meteorological Office. The downside of Peter Nichols' book is he gives rather short shrift to these generally unknown aspects of Fitzroy's career. But, when Mr. Nichols is on his home turf (the ocean, if that isn't a non sequitur!), he sparkles. He is clearly most happy when discussing Fitzroy the "boy wonder" captain and surveyor. (Fitzroy was in his mid-tw. Masterpiece Fabulous well researched nonfiction masterpiece.Takes you back in time and puts youInto the world before evolution was understood.Sublime
This is the story of the man without whom the name Charles Darwin might be unknown to us today. That man was Captain Robert FitzRoy, who invited the 22-year-old Darwin to be his companion on board the Beagle .This is the remarkable story of how a misguided decision by Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle , precipitated his employment of a young naturalist named Charles Darwin, and how the clash between FitzRoy’s fundamentalist views and Darwin’s discoveries led to FitzRoy’s descent into the abyss.One of the great ironies of history is that the famous journey—wherein Charles Darwin consolidated the earth-rattling ‘origin of the species’ discoveries—was conceived by another man: Robert FitzRoy. Darwin did not give FitzRoy solace; indeed, the clash between the two men’s opposing views, together with the ramifications of Darwin’s revelations, provided FitzRoy with the final unendurable torment that forced him to end his own life.. It was FitzRoy who chose Darwin for the journey—not because of Darwin’s scientific expertise, but because he seemed a suitable companion to help FitzRoy fight back the mental illness that had plagued his family for generations
Nichols, who has taught creative writing at Georgetown and NYU, picks his narrative details well, fleshing out FitzRoy's personality and his shifting relationship with Darwin (though initially friendly, the captain came to violently reject his traveling companion's scientific conclusions). The bulk of the story is devoted to FitzRoy's two missions for the Royal Navy, both of which made him a well-known figure in England. Nichols (A Voyage for Madmen, etc.) fills in the gaps with this biography of Robert FitzRoy, the Beagle's second captain. Though the author's enthusiasm for his subject can lead to hyperbole, it'll prove hard not to share his fascination with how FitzRoy's naval career inadvertently set off a scientific controversy still flaring to this day. Picking up where his predecessor left of