达尔文(Charles Robert Darwin，1809－1882)英国博物学家，进化论的奠基人。1809年2月12日，出生于英国医生家庭。1825年至1828年在爱丁大学学医，后进入剑桥大学学习神学。1831年从剑桥大学毕业后，以博物学家的身份乘海军勘探船“贝格尔号(Beagle)”作历时5年(1831－1836)的环球旅行，观察和搜集了动物、植物和地质等方面的大量材料，经过归纳整理和综合分析，形成了生物进行的概念。1859年出版《物种起源(On the Origin of Species)》一书，全面提出以自然选择(Theoty of Natural Selection)为基础的进化学说。该书出版震动当时的学术界，成为生物学史上的一个转折点。自然选择的进化学说对各种唯心的神造论、目的论和物种不变论提出根本性的挑战。使当时生物学各领域已经形成的概念和观念发生根本性的改变。随后达尔文又发表了《动物和植物在家养下的变异(The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication ，1868)》、《人类由来及性的选择(The Descent of Man ，1871)》和《人类和动物的表情(The Expression of the Emotions in Animals and Man，1872)》等书，对人工选择作了系统的叙述，并提出性选择及人类起源的理论，进一步充实了进化学说的内容。

The origin of Species , by Charles Darwin , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics :

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. 0in 0in 0pt">on December 27, 1831, the young naturalist Charles Darwin left Plymouth Harbor aboard the HMS Beagle. For the next five years, he conducted research on plants and animals from around the globe, amassing a body of evidence that would culminate in one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind—the theory of evolution. Darwin presented his stunning insights in a landmark book that forever altered the way human beings view themselves and the world they live in. In The origin of Species , he convincingly demonstrates the fact of evolution: that existing animals and plants cannot have appeared separately but must have slowly transformed from ancestral creatures. Most important, the book fully explains the mechanism that effects such a transformation: natural selection, the idea that made evolution scientifically intelligible for the first time. one of the few revolutionary works of science that is engrossingly readable, The origin of Species not only launched the science of modern biology but also has influenced virtually all subsequent literary, philosophical, and religious thinking. George Levine , Kenneth Burke Professor of English Literature at Rutgers University, has written extensively about Darwin and the relation of science and literature, particularly in Darwin and the Novelists . He is the author of many related books, including The Realistic Imagination, Dying to Know , and his birdwatching memoirs, Lifebirds .