Darwin's Bluff (Shedinger)

Author: Robert F. Shedinger

ISBN: 9781637120378

Binding: paperback

Section: Science/Nature

Subtitle: The Mystery of the Book Darwin Never Finished

Tucked away in Charles Darwin’s surviving papers is a manuscript of almost 300,000 words that he never completed. It was his sequel to The Origin of Species, the book he had promised would finally supply solid empirical evidence for the creative power of natural selection, evidence he admitted was absent from the Origin, which he repeatedly described as a “mere abstract.” In this fascinating piece of historical detective work, Robert Shedinger draws on Darwin’s letters, private notebooks, and the unfinished manuscript itself to piece together the puzzle and reveal an embarrassing truth: Darwin's book, begun in earnest, devolved into a bluff.