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pp. 322, “The prolific and seasoned duo of White and Gribbin position their solid product a notch below the “definitive” level in hopes of snaring readers ordinarily put off by massive, footnoted compendiums of famous people’s lives. In their formula (previously displayed in biographies of Hawking and Einstein), brisk, to-the-point narrative is king, supported by chapters dedicated to explaining the scientist’s theories a-gestating. In Darwin’s case, his revolutionary theory of evolution perked along in his mind for two decades following his immortal odyssey on the Beagle. Because of inherited wealth, he could afford to sit, think, and observe, but life was no picnic. Illnesses plagued him, the nature of which was speculatively diagnosed in a recent “definitive” biog (Charles Darwin by John Bowlby, 1991). Ailments, however, didn’t rein in his scientific activity; even before Origin of Species upended the world, Darwin was one of England’s better, and better known, writers of natural history (on geology, initially). Touching on all essentials, the authors here take customary command of the life and the science, making this an excellent first-stop biog for readers new to Darwin.”