# The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex *By Charles Darwin. First edition, John Murray, London, 24 February 1871 (two volumes). Enlarged second edition, September 1874.* > I did not read the whole book. I opened the Project Gutenberg text (#2300, which carries the 1874 second-edition preface), read its contents list, the preface, the passage on Africa that Joel is Curious cites and the closing paragraphs, and used Wikisource and Wikipedia for publication facts. The chapter outline below is the book's own contents list. The rest of the summary is a brief orientation, not a reading. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex* | | Author | Charles Darwin | | Publisher | John Murray, London | | First published | 24 February 1871 (two volumes); second, enlarged edition September 1874 (the preface to it is dated "Down, Beckenham, Kent, September, 1874") | | ISBN | None. It predates ISBNs. Modern reprints carry their own | | Pages | Varies by edition (Open Library's median across editions of the work is about 690) | | Language | English | | Status | Public domain (Darwin died in 1882) | **Where it came up.** Joel is Curious cites it in Part 3 of his "Is evolution true?" series, on Darwin's guess that humanity began in Africa: - [Where's the missing link? Her name is Lucy (Is evolution true Part 3)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN1no70ENA8), Joel is Curious, published 5 October 2026. Vault note: [[Video Summaries/Joel is Curious/Where's the missing link Her name is Lucy. (Is evolution true Part 3)]] ## 2. Book resources **Free full text (public domain, legal).** - [Project Gutenberg #2300](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2300) (HTML, EPUB, Kindle and plain text; the 1874 second edition) - [Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man_(Darwin)) hosts the second edition by chapter (I opened the page header only) - Internet Archive scans linked from Open Library: [Cornell copy](https://archive.org/details/cu31924024753851) and [vol. 1 of the 1871 edition](https://archive.org/details/descentofmansele11871darw). I did not open either page. **Free audiobooks (LibriVox, public domain).** Three volunteer-read parts, all pointing at Gutenberg #2300 as their text: - [Part 1](https://librivox.org/the-descent-of-man-and-selection-in-relation-to-sex-part-1-by-charles-darwin/), 10 h 16 min - [Part 2](https://librivox.org/the-descent-of-man-and-selection-in-relation-to-sex-part-2-by-charles-darwin/), 15 h 11 min - [Part 3](https://librivox.org/descent-of-man-and-selection-in-relation-to-sex-the-part-3-by-charles-darwin/), 3 h 6 min **Library loans.** A *Descent of Man* audiobook appears in Libby/OverDrive through the Los Angeles Public Library catalog ([OverDrive record 5831158](https://www.overdrive.com/media/5831158)); your own library may or may not hold it. I did not check Hoopla. **Paid options.** - Audible lists a narrated edition ([Peter Wickham, ASIN 1781983518](https://www.audible.com/pd/1781983518)); I found it in an Audible search and did not check the price. - Print: many publishers sell it. I did not open a specific Amazon listing, so I have not checked price or stock. The Kindle route is the free Gutenberg Kindle file above. **Cover:** [Open Library cover image](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/5634198-L.jpg) (the cover Open Library holds for this work; I did not check which edition it shows). ## 3. Author biography Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 to 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, then went to Christ's College, Cambridge (1828 to 1831). His five-year voyage on HMS *Beagle* (1831 to 1836) established him as a geologist, and *The Voyage of the Beagle* (1839) made him a popular author. He and Alfred Russel Wallace presented the theory of natural selection jointly in 1858, and *On the Origin of Species* followed in 1859. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin). See also my note on [[Book Summaries/Darwin, Charles/On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin|On the Origin of Species]]. ## 4. Author interviews and talks Darwin died in 1882, so there are no interviews. His own account is the [*Autobiography of Charles Darwin* (Gutenberg #2010)](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2010), also on [LibriVox](https://librivox.org/the-autobiography-of-charles-darwin-by-charles-darwin/). His letters are catalogued by the [Darwin Correspondence Project](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/); I opened its home page only. Darwin's own preface to the second edition (in the Gutenberg text) is the nearest thing to an author's statement of aims, and I summarize it below. ## 5. Summary **Thesis.** Darwin applies the theory of the *Origin* to humans. Part I argues that humans descend from some lower form, using anatomy, development, the mental powers of animals and the history of the moral sense. Parts II and III develop a second mechanism, sexual selection, to explain differences between the sexes and among human groups. His own closing line: "Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin." (Gutenberg #2300, end of the general summary.) **What the 1874 preface says.** Darwin answers critics who said he credited natural selection alone. He writes that even in the first *Origin* he gave "great weight" to the inherited effects of use and disuse, and he says his conviction of the power of sexual selection "remains unshaken", while admitting that "several of my conclusions will hereafter be found erroneous" in a first treatment of a subject. He also notes new material from Huxley on the brains of man and the higher apes, added as a supplement to Part I. **The Africa passage (the one the video cites).** In Chapter VI Darwin reasons from geographic distribution. Since "the living mammals are closely related to the extinct species of the same region", he infers it is "probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee", and so "somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived on the African continent than elsewhere. But it is useless to speculate on this subject." He knew only a few fossil apes from Europe and no human fossils that settled the question. **Chapter outline** (from the Gutenberg contents list): *Introduction.* *Part I. The Descent or Origin of Man* - Ch. I. The evidence of the descent of man from some lower form - Ch. II. On the manner of development of man from some lower form - Ch. III. Comparison of the mental powers of man and the lower animals - Ch. IV. Comparison of the mental powers, continued - Ch. V. On the development of the intellectual and moral faculties during primeval and civilised times - Ch. VI. On the affinities and genealogy of man - Ch. VII. On the races of man *Part II. Sexual Selection* - Ch. VIII. Principles of sexual selection - Ch. IX. Secondary sexual characters in the lower classes of the animal kingdom - Ch. X. Secondary sexual characters of insects - Ch. XI. Insects, continued: Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) - Ch. XII. Secondary sexual characters of fishes, amphibians and reptiles - Ch. XIII to XVI. Secondary sexual characters of birds (four chapters) - Ch. XVII and XVIII. Secondary sexual characters of mammals (two chapters) *Part III. Sexual Selection in Relation to Man, and Conclusion* - Ch. XIX and XX. Secondary sexual characters of man - Ch. XXI. General summary and conclusion **A caution for modern readers.** The book is a Victorian work. Chapters V and VII in particular reflect the racial hierarchies and sources of its time and should be read as history, not as current science. I did not read those chapters closely for this note. ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **supported** for what the video draws from the book. The note makes few claims of its own. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Darwin suggested Africa as the likely cradle of humankind (video) | Supported | Gutenberg #2300, Chapter VI: "somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived on the African continent than elsewhere", immediately hedged with "it is useless to speculate" | | First edition 1871, second enlarged edition 1874 | Supported | [Wikisource header](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man_(Darwin)): first edition 24 Feb 1871; second edition September 1874 (preface in Gutenberg text) | | The video's page reference (vol. 1, ch. VI, p. 199) | Not re-checked | I verified the passage in the 1874 text but not the 1871 page number | | Darwin never said humans descend from modern apes | Supported in substance | The Africa passage speaks of "extinct apes closely allied to" the gorilla and chimpanzee, not of living apes as ancestors | | LibriVox has a full reading | Supported | Three parts, 10 h 16 min, 15 h 11 min and 3 h 6 min per the LibriVox API | ## 7. Citations and references - [Project Gutenberg #2300: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2300) (contents, preface, Chapter VI passage, conclusion) - [Wikisource: The Descent of Man (Darwin)](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man_(Darwin)) - [LibriVox Part 1](https://librivox.org/the-descent-of-man-and-selection-in-relation-to-sex-part-1-by-charles-darwin/), [Part 2](https://librivox.org/the-descent-of-man-and-selection-in-relation-to-sex-part-2-by-charles-darwin/), [Part 3](https://librivox.org/descent-of-man-and-selection-in-relation-to-sex-the-part-3-by-charles-darwin/) - [Open Library: The descent of man](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL515361W) and [The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15330328W) - [Wikipedia: Charles Darwin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin) - Video: [Where's the missing link? Her name is Lucy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN1no70ENA8) (Joel is Curious)