Darwin's notebooks provide an invaluable record of his scientific thinking and most importantly, the development of his theory of natural selection. This edition of the notebooks, prepared to the highest standard of textual editing, thus affords a unified view of Darwin's professional interests. The Red Notebook, used on the voyage of H. M. S. Beagle and afterwards in England, contains Darwin's first evolutionary statements. In July of 1837, Darwin began his 'Transmutation Notebooks' (B - E) devoted to the solution of the species problem and in the third notebook of this series he first formulated the theory of natural selection. This volume also contains Notebook A and the glen Roy Notebook on geology, Notebooks M and N on man and behaviour and a notebook labelled Questions and Experiments. Fresh transcriptions have been done for all previously published manuscripts, with readings made directly from Notebooks B, C, D and E, presenting them with previously excised pages and restored to their original sequence.

この一冊は単なる科学資料の集成ではありません。若きダーウィンが、神中心の世界観を覆す「自然淘汰」という劇薬に辿り着くまでの、あまりに生々しい思考の冒険譚です。読者は、一人の青年が断片的な観察から巨大な真理を構築していく、まさにその瞬間の熱量に立ち会うことができます。 磨き抜かれた論文以前の、迷いと熱狂。ここには既存の価値観を解体し再構築する「知の闘争」が刻まれています。直筆から復元された言葉が放つ剥き出しの躍動感は、完成された科学書が失った文学的な切迫感を帯びています。一人の人間が世界そのものを書き換えるまでの、震えるような思考の軌跡をぜひ目撃してください。