Charles Darwin s foremost biographer Janet Browne delivers a vivid and accessible introduction to the book that permanently altered our understanding of what it is to be human. A sensation on its publication in 1859 The Origin of the Species profoundly shocked Victorian readers by calling into question the belief in a Creator with its description of evolution through natural selection. And Darwin s seminal work is nearly as controversial today. In her illuminating study Browne delves into the long genesis of Darwin s theories from his readings as a university student and his five-year voyage on the Beagle to his debates with contemporaries and experiments in his garden. She explores the shock to Darwin when he read of competing scientist s similar discoveries and the wide and immediate impact of Darwin s theories on the world. As one of the launch titles in Atlantic Monthly Press Books That Changed the World series Browne s history takes readers inside The Origin of the Species and shows why it can fairly claim to be the greatest science book ever published.