Everyone has opinions about evolution, but how many people have actually read Charles Darwin? If you haven’t done so yet, you’re missing out on what is surely one of the greatest books ever written. Written for the general public of the 1850s, it is a rigorously documented but highly readable account of the scientific theory that now lies at the root of our present attitude to the universe. Darwin’s book contains a wealth of evidence that the diversity of life arose through a branching pattern of evolution and common descent. Challenging notions such as the fixity of species with the idea of natural selection, and setting forth the results of pioneering work on the ecology of animals and plants, it made a lasting contribution to philosophical and scientific thought. Such an important foundational book that changed the course of the world and laid foundation to many new branches of science.