Charles Darwin › Reading room
The reading room
The original sources that are free online, and what each one is good for.
Darwin's own words
- On the Origin of Species, first edition (1859)The book as first published. Search it: evolution nowhere, pigeon everywhere. Project Gutenberg.
- The Voyage of the BeagleHis travel journal, including the Galapagos and the famous sentence about the finches. Project Gutenberg.
- The Descent of Man (1871)The human argument, made twelve years after the Origin. Project Gutenberg.
- The Autobiography (1887 text)Written for his children, as his son first printed it, with the cuts. Project Gutenberg.
The letters and the notebooks
- Darwin Correspondence ProjectAbout fifteen thousand letters to and from Darwin, online with their editors' notes. Cambridge University Library.
- Darwin OnlineEverything he published, plus the notebooks, manuscripts and the uncut autobiography, free. The best Darwin site there is.
Places
- Down House, KentThe house he called ugly, and the Sand-walk where he thought. English Heritage.
Links checked October 2026. If one has moved, tell me.
More about Charles Darwin
- Did Darwin say “survival of the fittest”?
- Did Darwin say humans came from apes?
- Why did Darwin wait twenty years to publish?
- Did Darwin discover evolution in the Galapagos?
- Did Wallace discover natural selection first?
- Did the Origin of Species sell out on the first day?
- Was Darwin an atheist?
- On the Origin of Species, counted
- The timeline
Something to read first
The trial file
A short piece, free: what the documents in Galileo’s own trial file actually say, including the two pages that decided it. It isn’t sold anywhere, and it’s the fastest way to see how these books are built.
One email when there’s a new book. Nothing else, and you can leave any time.