On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (third edition)

London : printed by W. Clowes and Sons for John Murray, 1861. Third edition. Octavo, original green cloth, boards blocked in blind, spine gilt (corners rubbed, a few light marks, small splits to head and foot of spine), hinges unobtrusively strengthened, binding variant A, with full point (period) after “MURRAY” in spine imprint, tan endpapers (small chip to fore edge of front free endpaper), bookseller’s pencilled notes verso, contemporary owner’s name to to half-title, small owner’s initial to title page, pp. xix; [blank], 548; (2 – publisher’s catalogue, small ink underline), folding lithographic plate by William West after Darwin ( a couple of clear tape reinforcements verso), light pale scattered foxing, one quire slightly sprung, a very good copy of the third edition.

The first edition of 1859, a great rarity, is described in Freeman as “… the most important biological work ever written.”; Dibner, “… the most important single work in science.”; Printing & the Mind of Man, “… revolutionized our methods of thinking and our outlook on the natural order of things. The recognition that constant change is the order of the universe had been finally established and a vast step forward in the uniformity of nature had been taken”.

The third edition, of which 2000 copies were printed, contains substantial revisions by Darwin, unlike the second edition, which was essentially a reprint of the first. The third edition ‘was extensively altered, and is of interest for the addition of a table of differences between it and the second edition, a table which occurs in each subsequent edition, and also for the addition of the historical sketch… which was written to satisfy complaints that Darwin had not sufficiently considered his predecessors in the general theory of evolution… there is also a postscript on page xii… concern[ing] a review of the earlier editions by Asa Gray’ (Freeman p. 78).

A very good example. 

Freeman 381, binding variant A, with full point (period) after “MURRAY” in spine imprint.