Books

Darwin for Beginners

By Leroy Douresseau
November 23, 2003 - 09:46

The back cover notes on Pantheon Books' DARWIN FOR BEGINNERS describes the text of the book as "…clever, witty, and highly informative…," and DFB certainly is. The book is surprisingly accessible and presents Charles Darwin, the man we know as "the father of evolution," in a reader friendly way.

DFB, a republication of a 1982 book, is actually part of a series that introduces important intellectuals and thinkers like Darwin and Sigmund Freud to readers through words and pictures, what we like to call the comic book or graphic novel. Rather than do a comic book adaptation of Darwin's most famous work, THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, writer Jonathan Miller details Darwin's life, the development of his theories, the science of his time, and the culture in which he lived and how those elements came together and shaped his revolutionary ideas.

Miller's text is highly insightful, funny, and as entertaining as it is enlightening. The last third of the book is, however, occasionally too dry, but it does revive in a conclusion that left me wanting more. Borin Van Loon uses a mixture of single panel cartoons, single page illustrations, collages, comic strips, illustrated maps, illustrated prose, and multi-panel pantomimes that work cohesively with Miller's text in ways that most traditional comic book art fails.

Darwin for Beginners is by no means perfect, but it's the perfect way to introduce crucial scientific ideas and personalities to the layman and to the student. If only copies of this were in high school classrooms. GRADE B+

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12