Write to the booksellers
PRENANT (Marcel)
Darwin.
In-12, broché, couverture imprimée, 322 p., non coupé. Paris, Éditions sociales, 1938.
Reference : 20537
Edition originale. Darwin révolutionnaire, mais dépassé par Marx et Engels à cause de ses "préjugés de classe".
Bookseller's contact details
Librairie Hatchuel, Livres anciens et rares
M. Patrick Hatchuel
58 rue Monge
75005 Paris
France
33 01 47 07 40 60
Payment mode
Sale conditions
Les prix indiqués sont nets, frais de port et d'assurance à la charge du client. <br />Aucun retour n'est accepté sans motif valable et sans notre accord préalable (délai<br />8 jours). <br />Paiements acceptés : Cartes bancaires (par un lien de paiement), chèques, virements. <br />
5 book(s) with the same title
Jinsoron (i.e. Japanese ""On the Ancestor(s) of Man"", Translated by Kozu Senzaburo, original title: ""Descent of Man""). 3 vols. - [FIRST TRANSLATION OF DARWIN INTO JAPANESE]
Tokyo, Ichibe Yamanaka., Meiji 14. (1881). 8vo. 3 volumes, all in the contemporary (original?) yellow wrappers (Traditional Fukuro Toji binding/wrappers). Extremities with wear and with light soiling, promarily affecting vol. 1. Title in brush and ink to text-block foot. A few ex-ownership stamps. Folding plate with repair. A fine set. 46 ff" 70 ff. + 9 plates of which 1 is folded" 72 ff. ""Vol. I contains prefaces to 1st and 2d editions of Descent of man Nos 936 & 944"" vol. II contains chapter 1 and vol. III chapter 2. All published, intended to form 9 vols containing chapters 1-7 and 21."" (Darwin-Online).
The exceedingly rare first translation of Darwin's Descent of Man and the first (partial) translation of Origin of Species, constituting the very first translation of any of Darwin's work into Japanese and, arguably, being the most influential - albeit in a different way than could be expected - of all Darwin-translations. ""The first translation of a book by Darwin was published in 1881: a translation of The Descent of Man, titled as Jinsoron (On the Ancestor(s) of Man"" Darwin 1881). The translator was a scholar of education, Kozu Senzaburo (...). In spite of its title, the book was actually a hybrid, which included a mixture of chapters of the Descent (namely, chapters 1-7 and 21) together with other texts: the Historical Sketch that Darwin appended to the third edition of the Origin (1861), and some sections taken from Thomas Huxley's Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (Kaneko 2000). So this book can also be described as the first publication including a partial translation of a text from the Origin"" (Taizo, Translating ""natural selection"" in Japanese: from ""shizen tota"" to ""shizen sentaku"", and back?)Darwin's theories had a profound influence on Japan and Japanese culture but in a slightly different way than in the West: Darwinism was marked as social and political principles primarily embraced by social thinkers, philosophers and politicians to advocate the superiority of Japanese culture and society (and military) and not by biologist and zoologist. ""It was as if Darwin's famous oceanic journey and the meticulous research into the animal and plant kingdoms that he spent his life undertaking had all been staged as an elaborate excuse for composing a theory whose true object was Victorian society and the fate of the world's modern nations."" (Golley, Darwinism in Japan: The Birth of Ecology).The popularity of Darwin's works and theories became immensly popular in Japan: ""Curiously, there are more versions of ""The Origin"" in Japanese than in any other language. The earliest were literary, with subsequent translations becoming more scientific as the Japanese developed a technical language for biology."" (Glick, The Comparatice Reception of Darwinism, P. XXII)Darwin's work had in Japan - as in the rest of the world - profound influence on the academic disciplines of zoology and biology, however, in Japan the most immediate influence was not on these subjects but on social thinkers: ""[...] it exerted great influence on Japanese social thinkers and social activists. After learning of Darwin's theory, Hiroyuki Kato, the first president of Tokyo Imperial University, published his New Theory of Human Rights and advocated social evolution theory (social Darwinism), emphasizing the inevitable struggle for existence in human society. He criticized the burgeoning Freedom and People's right movement. Conversely Siusui Kautoku, a socialist and Japanese translator of the Communist Manifesto, wrote articles on Darwinism, such as ""Darwin and Marx"" (1904). In this and other articles, he criticized kato's theory on Social Darwinism, insisting that Darwinism does not contradict socialism. The well known anarchist, Sakae Osugi published the third translation of On the Origin of Species in 1914, and later his translation of peter Kropotokin's Mutial Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Osugi spread the idea of mutual aid as the philosophical base of Anarcho-syndicalism."" (Tsuyoshi, The Japanese Lysenkoism and its Historical Backgrounds, p. 9) ""Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was introduced to Japan in 1877 (Morse 1936/1877) during Japan's push to gain military modernity through study of western sciences and technologies and the culture from which they had arisen. In the ensuing decades the theory of evolution was applied as a kind of social scientific tool, i.e. social Spencerism (or social Darwinism) (Sakura 1998:341"" Unoura 1999). Sakura (1998) suggests that the theory of evolution did not have much biological application in Japan. Instead, Japanese applied the idea of 'the survival of the fittest' (which was a misreading of Darwin's natural selection theory) to society and to individuals in the struggle for existence in Japan's new international circumstances (see also Gluck 1985: 13, 265).However, at least by the second decade of the 1900s, and by the time that Imanishi Kinji entered the Kyoto Imperial University, the curricula in the natural and earth sciences were largely based on German language sources and later on English language texts. These exposed students to something very different from a social Darwinist approach in these sciences. New sources that allow us to follow"" (ASQUITH, Sources for Imanishi Kinji's views of sociality and evolutionary outcomes, p. 1).""After 1895, the year of China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, Spencer's slogan ""the survival of the fittest"" entered Chinese and Japanese writings as ""the superior win, the inferior lose."" Concerned with evolutionary theory in terms of the survival of China, rather than the origin of species, Chinese intellectuals saw the issue as a complex problem involving the evolution of institutions, ideas, and attitudes. Indeed, they concluded that the secret source of Western power and the rise of Japan was their mutual belief in modern science and the theory of evolutionary progress. According to Japanese scholars, traditional Japanese culture was not congenial to Weastern science because the Japanese view of the relationship between the human world and the divine world was totally different from that of Western philosophers. Japanese philosophers envisioned a harmonious relationship between heaven and earth, rather than conflict. Traditionally, nature was something to be seen through the eyes of a poet, rather than as the passive object of scientific investigations. The traditional Japanese vision of harmony in nature might have been uncongenial to a theory based on natural selection, but Darwinism was eagerly adopted by Japanese thinkers, who saw it as a scientific retionalization for Japan's intense efforts to become a modernized military and industial power. Whereas European and American scientists and theologians became embroiled in disputes about the evolutionary relationship between humans and other animals, Japanese debates about the meaning of Darwinism primarily dealt with the national and international implications of natural selection and the struggle for survival. Late nineteenth-century Japanese commentators were likely to refer to Darwinism as an ""eternal and unchangeable natural law"" that justified militaristic nationalism directed by supposedly superior elites"". (Magner, A History of the Life Sciences, Revised and Expanded, p. 349)""Between 1877 and 1888, only four works on the subject of biological evolution were published in Japan. During these same eleven years, by contrast, at least twenty Japanese translations of Herbert Spencer's loosely ""Darwinian"" social theories made their appearance. The social sciences dominated the subject, and when Darwin's original The Origin of Species (Seibutsu shigen) finally appeared in translation in 1896, it was published by a press specializing in economics. It is not surprising then that by the early 20th century, when Darwin's work began to make an impact as a biological rather than a ""social"" theory, the terms ""evolution"" (shinka), ""the struggle for existence"" (seizon kyôsô), and ""survival of the fittest"" (tekisha seizon) had been indelibly marked as social and political principles. It was as if Darwin's famous oceanic journey and the meticulous research into the animal and plant kingdoms that he spent his life undertaking had all been staged as an elaborate excuse for composing a theory whose true object was Victorian society and the fate of the world's modern nations."" (Golley, Darwinism in Japan: The Birth of Ecology).Freeman 1099c
Priruchennyie zhivotnyie i vozdelannyie rasteniya [i.e. Russian ""The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication"". Translated from English with the consent and assistance of the author by V. Kovalevsky. Edited by I. M. Sechenov, botanical sect... - [THE VERY FIRST PUBLICATION OF DARWIN'S 'VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION' IN ANY LANGUAGE. ]
St. Petersburg, 1868 [but in fact 1867-1869]. 8vo. In contemporary half calf with renewed spine. Inner hindges with repairs and boards with soiling and a few marks and holes to volume 1. Light foxing throughout, primarily affecting margins and plates. Overall a good copy. IV, 443, (1): ill"" V.2: 462, (I)-VI pp.
The very first publication of Darwin's 'Variation under Domestication' in any language. The title-page states 1868 but they two volumes were in fact published, respectively in November 1867 and 1869.""In August, 1867, Darwin wrote to Lyell that he was visited by a young Russian ""who is translating my new book into Russian."". The book was the 'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication', and the youngRussian was Vladimir Kovalevsky, who subsequently became a well-known evolutionary palaeontologist. At that time the 'Variation' was not yet published, and it seems most probably that the translation was made from a set of proofs given to Kovalevsky by Darwin. Thanks to Kovalevsky's rapid work, the first section of the Russian translation of the Variation was published several months prior to the publication of the English original."" (Glick, The Comparative Reception of Darwinism, p. 235)""The first Russian edition, which is dated 1868 on the volume title page, is of particular interest. It is the only work, in his lifetime, of which any part appeared in foreign translation before it appeared in English. Correspondence at Cambridge shows that the translator was sent copies of corrected proofs as they were ready. It was published in seven parts of which four, perhaps to the end of Chapter XV, appeared in 1867"" the next two appeared in 1868, and the last not until 1869, because he had been away in Russian Asia. The title is given in full, in English translation, under No. 925 and has been discussed above"" (Freeman).Vladimir Kovalevsky (1842-1883), the translator of this book, was a Russian biologist and the founder of evolutionary palaeontology. His own scientific works were printed between 1873 and 1877, and according to Henry Osborn (Osborn, H. The rise of Mammalia in North America // Proc. Amer. Assoc. Sci. 1894. vol. 42, pp. 189-227) they ''dare away'' all traditional and dry European paleontology. That was mainly because Kovalevsky was a devoted Darwinist and adapted Darwin's ideas to palaeontology. Luis Dollo, the Belgian palaeontologist, a contemporary of Kovalevsky's, described him thus: ''No palaeontologist embodies so perfectly our epoch, as the brilliant and miserable Vladimir Kovalevsky, friend and guest of the immortal Charles Darwin''. Indeed, Kovalevsky was a friend of Darwin's and they corresponded extensively. When visiting Darwin in 1877, the Russian botanist, Timiryazev, asked Darwin about his views on Russian science and Darwin surprised him with an answer that Vladimir Kovalevsky (little known at the time) was the bright hope of palaeontology.Kovalevsky was very eager to translate Darwin into Russian as soon as possible so he asked Darwin to send him the proofs of his book chapter by chapter as soon as Darwin finished them. Kovalevsky translated with great speed (the complete book contains 900 pages) and he began to print the chapters from July 1867 (the first English edition appeared on 30th January 1868). The chapters were printed one after another as the translation went on. It is unclear whether any part of it appeared before the English edition.Vladimir Kovalevsky translated another of Darwin's books, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals [O vyrazhenii emotsyi u cheloveka I zhyvotnikh] that appeared the same year as the English edition (1872).Kovalevsky committed suicide at the age of forty after the breakdown of his marriage to the celebrated mathematician, Sophia Kovalevskaya who became the first female professor of mathematics in the world.OCLC finds only three complete copies worldwide (Cornell, American Philosophical Society (US) and Thomas Fisher Library, (Canada)). Freeman 925
Zoonomie, ou Lois de la vie organique, par Erasme Darwin, Docteur en Médecine, Membre de la Société royale de Londres, Auteur du Jardin botanique, etc. Traduit de l'anglais sur la troisième Édition, et augmenté d'Observations et de Notes, par Joseph-François Kluyskens, Professeur de Chirurgie à l'École élémentaire de Médecine, et Chirurgien en chef des Hôpitaux civils de Gand, Membre correspondant de la Société de l'École de Médecine de Paris, et de plusieurs Sociétés savantes.
A Gand, chez P. F. de Goesin-Verhaeghe; rue Haute-porte, n°229, 1810-1811. 1810 4 vol. in-8° (212 x 138 mm.) de: I. [3] ff. (faux-titre, titre, épigraphe); 20 pp. (préface du traducteur); [1] f. (titre de la première partie); 23 pp. (reprise de la pagination à 19, préface de l'auteur); [1] p. (table); 614 pp.; [1] p. (errata); 3 planches aquarellées ; II. [2] ff. (titre, table); 659 pp.; [2] pp. (errata, avis au relieur); 4 planches (3 aquarellées, 1 gravée); III. XIV pp. (titre, titre de la deuxième partie, préface de l'auteur); 586 pp.; 3 planches gravées; IV. [1] f. (titre); 570 pp. (dont table); 1 planche dépliante gravée. Un total de 11 planches (dont 1 dépliante et 6 à l'aquarelle). (Corps douvrage très frais). Demi-basane d'époque, plats recouverts de papier marbré, dos lisses ornés, titre et tomaison de maroquin noir, tranches jaspées. (Quelques petites rousseurs).
Première édition en français, traduite de l'anglais par Joseph-François Kluyskens et due à Erasmus Darwin (E.O. : 1795 et 1799). Le présent ouvrage est considéré comme son uvre principale pour ce qui touche aux sciences naturelles et à la médecine. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) est un poète, médecin, botaniste et inventeur britannique. 70 ans avant les travaux de son célèbre petit-fils et face au créationnisme alors dominant, il amorce de façon significative les réflexions sur l'origine de la vie et son évolution. Médecin, il exerce son art avec un grand succès à Lichfield. On a de lui un poème célèbre, le Jardin botanique (1781), divisé en deux parties, intitulées : l'Économie de la végétation et les Amours des plantes, et un ouvrage fort original, la Zoonomie ou Lois de la vie organique (1794) : il y classe les maladies de l'homme d'après une méthode analogue à celle adoptée par Carl von Linné (1707-1778, naturaliste suédois) pour les plantes, et les explique toutes par l'excitabilité, comme Thomas Brown (1785-1862, naturaliste et un malacologiste britannique). Dans cet ouvrage, de même que dans le poème posthume The Temple of Nature, il expose des idées évolutionnistes. Sa curiosité le conduit à s'interroger sur les raisons de la présence de coquillages fossilisés présents au fond des mines ainsi que sur le développement des bactéries qu'il observe au microscope. Il mène également des recherches sur les nuages. Dans ses travaux et sa réflexion, il en vient à remettre en cause la doctrine alors dominante du créationnisme. Il fait jouer un rôle à la sélection sexuelle dans l'évolution des espèces, idée que son petit-fils soutiendra lui aussi et qui intitulera Zoonomia le premier manuscrit de l'Origine des espèces. Également inventeur dans divers domaines, Erasmus Darwin laisse cependant d'autres s'attribuer certaines de ses inventions, craignant pour sa réputation en tant que médecin. On lui attribue ainsi :le moulin à vent horizontal de Josiah Wedgwood (grand-père d'Emma Wedgwood, épouse de Charles Darwin) ; un type de chariot qui ne se renverse pas (1766) ; une machine parlante (1771) ; l'ascenseur à caisson du canal à charbon du Somersetshire ; un dispositif géométrique de liaison dans la direction d'un véhicule (1758), préfigurant la géométrie directionnelle d'Ackermann ; un puits artésien ainsi que divers appareils de météorologie. Le traducteur, Joseph-François Kluyskens, décrit cette oeuvre de Darwin comme telle: Faire connaître les lois qui gouvernent tous les corps organisés ; réduire toutes ces lois qui ont rapport à la vie organique en classes, ordres, genres et espèces, et les faire servir enfin à l'explication des causes des maladies ; tel fut le but que se proposa le Docteur Darwin lorsqu'il composa la Zoonomie, ouvrage sublime qui lui a coûté plus de vingt années de travail, et les plus profondes méditations (Préface du traducteur, vol. 1). Louvrage est illustré de 11 planches, dont plusieurs rehaussées à laquarelle, représentant la rétine et le spectre oculaire. A noter l'impressionnante gravure du fauteuil pour corriger la distorsion de la colonne vertébrale. Rare exemplaire dont ne dénombre que 2 exemplaires passés en vente ces 50 dernières années. Bel exemplaire conservé dans sa reliure dépoque. 4 vol. 8vo (212 x 138 mm.) of : I. [3] ff. (faux-title, title, epigraph); 20 pp. (preface by the translator); [1] f. (title of the first part); 23 pp. (resumption of pagination at 19, preface by the author); [1] pp. (table) ; 614 pp. ; [1] p. (errata); 3 watercolor plates; II. [2] ff. (title, table) ; 659 pp. ; [2] pp. (errata, notice to the binder); 4 plates (3 watercolors, 1 engraved); III. XIV pp. (title, title of the second part, preface by the author) ; 586 pp. ; 3 engraved plates ; IV. [1] f. (title) ; 570 pp. (including table) ; 1 engraved folding plate. A total of 11 plates (including 1 folding and 6 in watercolor). (Body of the book very fresh). Contemporary half-basane, boards covered with marbled paper, spines decorated with smooth edges, title in black morocco, edges speckled. (A few small freckles). First edition in French, translated from English by Joseph-François Kluyskens and due to Erasmus Darwin (E.O.: 1795 and 1799). The present work is considered to be his main work on natural sciences and medicine. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) was a British poet, physician, botanist and inventor. Seventy years before the work of his famous grandson and in the face of the then dominant creationism, he significantly initiated reflections on the origin of life and its evolution. As a physician, he practiced his art with great success in Lichfield. He wrote a famous poem, the "Jardin botanique" (1781), divided into two parts, entitled "l'Économie de la végétation" and "Amours des plantes", and a very original work, the "Zoonomie ou Lois de la vie organique" (1794): he classifies the diseases of man according to a method similar to the one adopted by Carl von Linné (1707-1778, Swedish naturalist) for plants, and explains them all by excitability, like Thomas Brown (1785-1862, British naturalist and malacologist). In this work, as well as in the posthumous poem "The Temple of Nature", he exposes evolutionary ideas. His curiosity led him to question the reasons for the presence of fossilized shells at the bottom of mines as well as the development of bacteria, which he observed under a microscope. He also conducted research on clouds. In his work and his reflection, he came to question the then dominant doctrine of creationism. He gave a role to sexual selection in the evolution of species, an idea that his grandson would also support and even entitled "Zoonomia" the first manuscript of the Origin of Species. Also an inventor in various fields, Erasmus Darwin allowed others to take credit for some of his inventions, fearing for his reputation as a doctor. He is credited with: Josiah Wedgwood's horizontal windmill (grandfather of Charles Darwin's wife Emma Wedgwood); a type of carriage that does not tip over (1766); a talking machine (1771); the Somersetshire Coal Canal box elevator; a geometric device for linking the direction of a vehicle (1758), prefiguring Ackermann's directional geometry; an artesian well; and various meteorological devices. The translator, Joseph-François Kluyskens, describes Darwin's work as follows: "To make known the laws which govern all organized bodies; to reduce all these laws which relate to organic life into classes, orders, genera, and species, and finally to make them serve as an explanation of the causes of disease; such was the aim which Doctor Darwin proposed to himself when he composed Zoonomy, a sublime work which cost him more than twenty years of work, and the deepest meditations (translated from french). The work is illustrated with 11 plates, several of them enhanced with watercolors, representing the retina and the ocular spectrum. Note the impressive engraving of the chair "to correct the distortion of the spine" (translated from french). Rare and beautiful copy, preserved in its original binding, of which only 2 copies have been sold in the last 50 years.
Phone number : 06 81 35 73 35
Proiskhozhdenie chelovieska i polovoi podbor [i.e. English ""Descent of Man""]. - [FIRST TRANSLATION OF DARWIN'S 'DESCENT OF MAN' INTO ANY LANGUAGE]
S.-Peterburg, Izdanie redaktsii zhurnala ""Znanie, 1871. 8vo. In contemporary black half calf with four rasied bands and gilt lettering to spine. Corners of binding with repairs and a three cm long tear to lower front hindge. Light miscolouring throughout, especially to first 10 leaves. (2), VII, (6), 439 pp.
The exceedingly rare first Russian translation of Darwin's 'Descent of Man' published only four month after the original English. The Russian publisher was eager to have a translation published, hence this early abridged edition - two other Russian translations followed later the same year - The present translation being the very first into any language. ""The Descent of Man showed that the process of organic evolution, propelled by the struggle for existence and natural selection, applied to man no less than to the rest of the animal kingdom. It gave explicit recognition to the idea of the anthropoid origin of man. This claim surprised no one, for it was clearly hinted at in the great work of 1859 and was elaborated in Thomas Huxley's Man's Place in Nature and Vogt's Lectures on Man. Nor was it much of a surprise when three Russian translations of The Descent appeared within one year after the publication of the English original. Two general ideas represented the essence of The Descent: natural selection is not only behind the physical survival of man but also behind the evolution of cultural values"" and the differences between animal and human behavior are differences of degree rather than of kind."" (Darwin in Russian Thought) ""The Expression helped lay the foundations for a scientific study of the psychological aspect of the evolution of species. The book appeared in a Russian translation only a few months after the publication of the English original. The paleontologist Vladimir Kovalevskii was the translator, and the embryologist Aleksandr Kovalevskii was in charge of editorial tasks. In 1874 Vladimir wrote to Darwin that nearly two thousand copies of the Russian translation were sold."" "" The Expression deals much more extensively with selected aspects of human and animal behavior than with general problems of evolutionary biology. The Russian reviewers were generally impressed with Darwin's descriptions and categorizations of animal behavior. The Journal of the Ministry of Public Education was unusually profuse in praising the book's content and writing style. The reviewer commended Darwin's impartiality and avoidance of ""materialistic trappings."" Even the adherents of spiritualism could read the book, he wrote, without the least discomfort. The reviewer thought that psychologists would benefit from the information the book presented on the ""physiological"" basis of behavior. Indeed, he recommended the book to all readers interested in the scientific foundations of human behavior. The liberal journal Knowledgewas equally laudatory. It noted that the book was eminently successful on two counts: it offered a ""rational explanation"" of many expressions of human emotions, and it integrated the study of animal and human behavior into the universal process of organic evolution. In fact, no educated person could afford to ignore it.N. P. Vagner, professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at St. Petersburg University, called The Expression a book with ""great strengths and minor flaws."" The volume reminded him of Darwin's previous works, which marked ""turning points in the history of science."" The strength of the book lay much more in its suggestion of new topics for comparative-psychological research than in a presentation of a theoretically and logically integrated system of scientific thought. Insufficient exploration of the physiological underpinnings of mental activities represented the book's major shortcoming"" (Darwin in Russian Thought) In Russia Darwinism had a profound influence not only upon the different sciences, but also on philosophy, economic and political thought, and the great literature of the period. For instance, both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky referenced Darwin in their most important works, as did numerous other thinkers of the period.Like Strakhov, however, Dostoevsky, acknowledging the significance of the ""Origin of Species"", saw the dangers of the theory. In the same year as the publication of Rachinsky's translation, he lets the narrator in ""Notes from Underground"" (1864) launch his attack on Darwinism , beginning: ""As soon as they prove you, for instance, that you are descended from a monkey, then it's no use scowling, you just have to accept it.""In ""Crime and Punishment"" (two years later, 1866) the Darwinian overtones inherent in Raskolnikov's theory of the extraordinary man are unmistakable. He describes the mechanism of ""natural selection,"" where, according to the laws of nature, by the crossing of races and types, a ""genius"" would eventually emerge. In general, Darwinian themes and Darwin's name occur in many contexts in a large number of Dostoevsky's works.'Descent of Man' was transted into Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian and Swedish in Darwin's lifetime. Freeman 1107.
Proiskhozhdenie chelovieska i polovoi podbor [i.e. English ""Descent of Man""]. - [FIRST TRANSLATION OF DARWIN'S 'DESCENT OF MAN' INTO ANY LANGUAGE]
S.-Peterburg, Izdanie redaktsii zhurnala ""Znanie, 1871. 8vo. In recent half calf with four rasied bands and gilt lettering to spine. Soiling and damp stain to title-page. Light brownspotting throughout. (2), VII, (5), 439, (7) pp.
The exceedingly rare first Russian translation of Darwin's 'Descent of Man' published only four months after the original English. The Russian publisher was eager to have a translation published, hence this early abridged edition - two other Russian translations followed later the same year - The present translation being the very first into any language. ""The Descent of Man showed that the process of organic evolution, propelled by the struggle for existence and natural selection, applied to man no less than to the rest of the animal kingdom. It gave explicit recognition to the idea of the anthropoid origin of man. This claim surprised no one, for it was clearly hinted at in the great work of 1859 and was elaborated in Thomas Huxley's Man's Place in Nature and Vogt's Lectures on Man. Nor was it much of a surprise when three Russian translations of The Descent appeared within one year after the publication of the English original. Two general ideas represented the essence of The Descent: natural selection is not only behind the physical survival of man but also behind the evolution of cultural values"" and the differences between animal and human behavior are differences of degree rather than of kind."" (Darwin in Russian Thought) ""The Expression helped lay the foundations for a scientific study of the psychological aspect of the evolution of species. The book appeared in a Russian translation only a few months after the publication of the English original. The paleontologist Vladimir Kovalevskii was the translator, and the embryologist Aleksandr Kovalevskii was in charge of editorial tasks. In 1874 Vladimir wrote to Darwin that nearly two thousand copies of the Russian translation were sold."" "" The Expression deals much more extensively with selected aspects of human and animal behavior than with general problems of evolutionary biology. The Russian reviewers were generally impressed with Darwin's descriptions and categorizations of animal behavior. The Journal of the Ministry of Public Education was unusually profuse in praising the book's content and writing style. The reviewer commended Darwin's impartiality and avoidance of ""materialistic trappings."" Even the adherents of spiritualism could read the book, he wrote, without the least discomfort. The reviewer thought that psychologists would benefit from the information the book presented on the ""physiological"" basis of behavior. Indeed, he recommended the book to all readers interested in the scientific foundations of human behavior. The liberal journal Knowledgewas equally laudatory. It noted that the book was eminently successful on two counts: it offered a ""rational explanation"" of many expressions of human emotions, and it integrated the study of animal and human behavior into the universal process of organic evolution. In fact, no educated person could afford to ignore it.N. P. Vagner, professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at St. Petersburg University, called The Expression a book with ""great strengths and minor flaws."" The volume reminded him of Darwin's previous works, which marked ""turning points in the history of science."" The strength of the book lay much more in its suggestion of new topics for comparative-psychological research than in a presentation of a theoretically and logically integrated system of scientific thought. Insufficient exploration of the physiological underpinnings of mental activities represented the book's major shortcoming"" (Darwin in Russian Thought) In Russia Darwinism had a profound influence not only upon the different sciences, but also on philosophy, economic and political thought, and the great literature of the period. For instance, both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky referenced Darwin in their most important works, as did numerous other thinkers of the period.Like Strakhov, however, Dostoevsky, acknowledging the significance of the ""Origin of Species"", saw the dangers of the theory. In the same year as the publication of Rachinsky's translation, he lets the narrator in ""Notes from Underground"" (1864) launch his attack on Darwinism , beginning: ""As soon as they prove you, for instance, that you are descended from a monkey, then it's no use scowling, you just have to accept it.""In ""Crime and Punishment"" (two years later, 1866) the Darwinian overtones inherent in Raskolnikov's theory of the extraordinary man are unmistakable. He describes the mechanism of ""natural selection,"" where, according to the laws of nature, by the crossing of races and types, a ""genius"" would eventually emerge. In general, Darwinian themes and Darwin's name occur in many contexts in a large number of Dostoevsky's works.'Descent of Man' was transted into Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian and Swedish in Darwin's lifetime. Freeman 1107.
