The Voyage of the Beagle
by Charles Darwin
The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin is a collection of journal entries written during Darwin’s famous trip around the world from 1831-1836.
Personal note: this was a hard book to get into. I nearly quit several times before getting halfway. And it slowed down my reading pace for the year considerably. But now I’m pleased to add this book to my read collection.
What makes the book difficult to get into?
Well, it’s dated.
I’m not certain how accurate Darwin’s geological and biological theories still are, but I’m pretty sure newer and better ones have been adopted by modern scientists.
That science is a method of discovery rather than a fixed sum of knowledge doesn’t mitigate the fact that reading old theories is a waste of time.
What saves the book is Darwin’s other observations about Gauchos, Brazilians, and the indigenous peoples of Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, and various islands the Beagle stopped at on the return journey.
As an American, I grew up well-versed in the history of manifest destiny that resulted in European descendants encroaching upon indigenous lands and many of the resultant wars and tragedies. But I’ve never learned anything about the native peoples of South America below Peru.
So getting a snapshot of South America in this period through Darwin’s eyes was revelatory.
Aside from these sociological observations, Darwin occasionally beautifully describes scenes and landscapes:
“…to the south we had a scene of savage magnificence, well becoming Tierra del Fuego. There was a degree of mysterious grandeur in mountain behind mountain, with the deep intervening valleys, all covered by one thick, dusky mass of forest. The atmosphere, likewise, in this climate, where gale succeeds gale, with rain, hail, and sleet, seems blacker than anywhere else. In the Straight of Magellan, looking due southward from Port Famine, the distant channels between the mountains appeared in their gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this world.”
In a younger world hampered by distance and the difficulties of navigation by sea, I can easily imagine The Voyage of the Beagle becoming a best-seller – which in fact happened upon its publication in 1839.
This book would be well-read by anyone interested in history or adventure.
Did you read The Voyage of the Beagle? What did you think? Any other books of the genre that you’d recommend?