A classic that took the world by storm, raising havoc among scientists and religious people as its exposition apparently contradicted the account of the creation of the world of Genesis in the Bible, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species remains the most readable and accessible of the great revolutionary works of scientific imagination. Sold out on the very first day of its publication in 1859 and often considered a watershed in the history of scientific, philosophical and theological ideas, the book describes the most fundamental truth of the natural world that there exists a "natural selection" of favourable variations and a fierce "struggle for existence" in all living beings, thereby ensuring the survival of the fittest. The classic that unfolds the mystery of mysteries, as Darwin calls it, in an intimate, informal and enjoyable style, continues to transform our views of the world and remains relevant in any study of the history of ideas.
