Books

1871. London: John Murray. 1871. 8vo. Original green cloth, covers embossed in blind, spines titled in gilt; pp. 423 (+ 16pp. adverts.), and pp. 475 (+ 16pp. adverts.), with 76 wood-engraved illustrations; bindings a little rubbed to extremities, a little spotting to endpapers and prelims and to last few leaves of vol II, otherwise very good. First edition, first issue, with Murray's advertisements at the end of each volume dated "Jan. 1871"; volume I, p. 297 starts with "transmitted"; volume II has the inserted postscript and has errata on the verso of the title-page. Freeman points out that "the word evolution occurs, for the first time in any of Darwin's works, on page 2 of the first volume". In this work Darwin expounded fully his theory of sexual selection and discussed at length the link he recognised between human and ape lineage. This piece further enhanced Darwin's fame - if not his popularity - and is one of the most significant works in the evolutionary debate.…

In 'The Descent of Man,' Charles Darwin applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection.