On the Origin of Species is a book that changed the way we think about the development of life on earth. The author's controversial theory of natural selection, or survival of the fittest, would make him internationally famous and put the issue of evolution at the centre of a fierce debate which still rages some 150 years after the book's first publication. This clothbound edition includes over one hundred delicately detailed and informative contemporary illustrations, many of them relating to the discoveries Darwin made during the second voyage of the research ship, H.M.S. Beagle. A truly beautiful and highly collectible edition in its own slipcase.