The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (second edition)

London: John Murray, 1888. Second edition, 23rd thousand. A few slight wrinkles to the outer corners of three pages in the frontis matter, the binding is bright and clean with no signs of wear, a near fine copy.. Pp. xvi, 693; 18 text-figures (woodcuts). Publisher’s original forest green cloth with spine lettered in gilt and with ornate gilt decorations at the top and bottom of the spine, the front and rear cloth-covered boards have blind-stamped border decorations, brown clay-coated endpapers, 8vo. This is Freeman 966, which is the second revised and augmented edition, the 23rd thousand. Darwin tackled the question of human evolution and natural selection in this work. It was a topic he avoided in previous works. There is a full-page annotation on the front free endpaper by John Macdonald, dated April 1889, that criticizes Darwin’s writings in favor of the account presented in Genesis. No other ownership marks.