Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1569863 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 372 pages

Synopsis
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals is a classic work originally published in 1872 and written by naturalist Charles Darwin. This title is about how animals and humans are able to express their emotions. This book played an important role as a follow up to Charles Darwins' 1871 book, The Descent of Man, and addresses questions on the origins of humans and human psychology throug his theory of natural selection.

From the Publisher
some excerpts from the British reviews
‘The definitive work on the subject… a literary gem and a seminal scientific discourse.’ MICHAEL WHITE, Mail on Sunday

‘Darwin’s most engaging study, displaying all his redoubtable talents for uncovering hidden detail…brought smiles of delight to my face.’ ROY PORTER, The Times

‘Why do we shrug? Why do dogs wag their tails? Why do we scowl when angry and pout when sad rather than the other way around? What is the difference between guilt and shame? This would be an extraordinary book even it had only answered these and scores of similar questions about the emotions in 1872. But Expression also proved that the human mind, not just the body, is a product of evolution. It showed, during the heyday of scientific racism, that the races of mankind are fundamentally similar; anticipating virtually every twentieth-century behavioural science, from child development and psychopathology to ethnography, ethology, cognitive science, and europhysiology. It was the first scientific work to rely on photography. Expression is a captivating book…Darwin enriched his arguments with hundreds of insightful observations, many with the pathos and humour of great literature, as when he describes the terror of a man being led to his execution or the comical dejection of his dog as soon as it sensed that a walk might end…This edition has the feel not of a lovingly restored museum piece but of a recent seminal work that needed only minor updating. It is as fresh and provocative today as it was 125 years ago.’ STEVEN PINKER Science

‘A masterpiece’ Evening Standard

‘Darwin’s forgotten masterwork provides a combination of the voyeurism of a Desmond Morris book and the rigour of a Richard Dawkins tract.’ KENAN MALIK, Independent on Sunday

‘Excellent …both scholarly and lively.’ LAURENCE HURST, New Scientist

‘Highly original…a treasure trove of a third edition, this is scholarship at its best.’ SIMON BARON-COHEN, Nature

Customer Reviews

Get the right edition!
Darwin's book is seminal in the understanding of emotions, and is just as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1872.

However, you must be careful to buy the right edition. In particular, Amazon is rather cavalier about sharing reviews and "search inside" images between different editions that just happen to have the same title. Don't let this mislead you.

Paul Ekman's definitive third edition published by Fontana [ISBN 0006387349] starts with the text and illustrations (including photographs) from the 1889 second edition, and includes further changes that Charles Darwin had indicated but which his son Francis did not include. Ekman adds further photographs and his own comments, which put the work fully into a modern context. It's a fine piece of scholarship.

On the other hand, the Filiquarian edition [ISBN 1599869152] is complete rubbish. It just reprints the freely available text of the second edition with no illustrations and no copy editing. Avoid it.

The Ekman edition fully deserves a 5* review, but I am only giving four because Amazon will attach this review to all the editions, and I want you to read it and realise the difference!

great book shame about the illustrations
this book is an amazing insight into nature and emotions, but i was very dissapointed when i recieved The Echo Library (1 Oct 2007)version which had no references or illustrations and is a dreadful reproduction of this classic work. i had to buy it again this time the by Charles Darwin and Paul Ekman (Paperback - 6 April 1999)version. i would have hoped a more recent publication would be better but alas not. stear well clear of the echo library 2007 version.