THE DESCENT OF MAN, and Selection in Relation to Sex

First Collector's Easton Limited Edition. Illustrated throughout by Fritz Kredel 4to, publisher's original black leather lettered in gilt between raised bands on the spine, gilt decorated with a geometric pattern on both covers and on the spine, silk endpapters, a.e.g. xvii, 362 pp.<br> A pristine copy, as mint.

Edizione: one of darwin’s most important and significant works. preface by ashley montagu. the descent of man is one of darwin’s most important works. it was in this book that darwin first used the word “evolution” in any of his works. the last chapter is about sexual selection in relation to man, and ends with his famous statement about man's lowly origin. in the preface to the second edition, darwin wrote of “the fiery ordeal through which this book has passed.” profiting from the criticism leveled at the text together with a number of new facts several correspondents had given him, darwin revised and added to his book. however, his “conviction of the power of sexual selection remains unshaken.”<br> "darwin wrote, in the preface to the second edition, of 'the fiery ordeal through which this book has passed.' he had avoided the logical outcome of the general theory of evolution, bringing man into the scheme, for twelve years, and in fact it had, by that time, been so much accepted that the clamour of the opposition was not strident. he had also been preceded in 1862 by huxley's man's place in nature.