This being the highly redacted version published by his son does contain some insights into how CD felt about his own work. It reminds you that his contribution to geology & biology was very significant even without Origin: coral reef formation (only verified in the 1950s) the 'parasite' that was actually the male, earthworms. Must read the full version

Like no other, Charles Darwin!

It's one of the most successful autobiographies ever written as it satisfies the core purpose of getting inside the author's head and his thoughts very clearly! I would highly recommend it to science lovers and geeks.

Autobiografía muy cortita, pero muy interesante.

Una obra breve y medianamente interesante, donde Darwin expone su vida y su naturaleza por encima, con pequeñas anécdotas curiosas. Es un repaso muy superficial de su vida, sin llegar a profundizar en nada, así que tiene más interés por estar escrito por el propio Darwin que por lo que cuenta. Me ha parecido especialmente interesante el capítulo sobre creencias religiosas.

Quite interesting to hear his own words about things... I enjoyed it (quite short)

About 125 pp long, w/ another 125 pp worth of additional material (do we really need 40 pp on the Darwin/Butler controversy?). It is the 250th anniversary of his birth and the 200th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of the Species. Time better spent reading Voyage of the Beagle or the Appleman/Norton Darwin (which has little Darwin in it, but over 200 yrs worth of essays about him and evolution). 30 yrs ago while working on an MA in English I became somewhat of an expert on Victorian autobiography - that is about the on;ly reason to read this semi-interesting work.

I enjoy the hopeful, fascinated mindset of the 19th century scientists, and Darwin was one of the greats. This autobiography had a chatty style that lays out the corse of his life, his research methods and mentors, and the various subjects that fascinated him. It was written for his family and heavily edited to remove information about the Darwin family. I very much want to read the unedited annotated version released by his descendent Nora Barlow.