Odyssey: Young Charles Darwin, the Beagle, and the Voyage That Changed the World

The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career.--Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin--alongside Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein--is one of the world's most famous scientists. In popular imagination, he peers at us from behind a bushy white Old Testament beard. This image of Darwin the Sage crowds out the vital younger man whose curiosities, risk-taking, and travels aboard HMS Beagle would shape his later theories and form the foundation of his scientific breakthroughts.

Though storied, the Beagle's voyage is frequently misunderstood, its mission and geographical breadth unacknowledged. The voyage's activities associated with South America--particularly its stop in the Galapagos archipelago, off Ecuador's coast--eclipse the fact that the Beagle, sailing in Atlantic, Pacific and Indian ocean waters, also circumnavigated the globe.

When not at sea, Darwin would embark on major overland excursions--outings, lasting weeks or months, that took him across mountains, pampas, rainforests, and deserts. He was an expert horseman, adept marksman, and talented surveyor of land and sea.

Acclaimed historian Tom Chaffin reveals young Darwin in all his complexities--the brashness that came from his priveleged background, the Faustian bargains he made with local politicians, his aborrance of slavery, and his ambition as he sought to carve himself a place amongst the other explorers and intellectual giants of his era. Drawing on a rich array sources, Chaffin brings Darwin's odyssey to vivid life.