It was to last five years and transform him from an amiable and somewhat aimless young man into a scientific celebrity. Even more vitally, it was to set in motion the intellectual currents that culminated in the arrival of The Origin of Species in Victorian drawing-rooms in 1859. His journal, reprinted here in a shortened version, is vivid and immediate, showing us a naturalist making patient observations, above all in geology. As well as a profusion of natural history detail, it records many other things that caught Darwin’s eye, from civil war in Argentina to the new colonial settlements of Australia. The editors have provided an excellent introduction and notes for this Penguin Classics edition, which also contains maps and appendices, including an essay on scientific geology and the Bible by Robert FitzRoy, Darwin’s friend and captain of the Beagle.

    One undertaking, however, led me on to another, so that I could scarcely avoid writing the present book. It is intended as a sort of companion to my Tales about Ancient and Modem Greece, and my Tales about Ancient Rome with some Account of Modem Italy. But though my principal design has been to make it agreeable and useful to young people, by adopting a familiar style, and by introducing many engravings, as well as a variety of curious anecdotes, illustrating what has been handed down to us of the deities of ancient days, yet have I still endeavoured to render my work fit for general use.

    Or Relations Of Those Who By Stratagem Or Desperate Valor, Have Effected The Most Surprising Escapes From Their Cruel Hands.