The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, notes by James T. Costa. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2009;537 pages, ISBN 978-0-674-03281-1, hardback, $35.00.
This photographic reprint of Darwin's first edition of 1859 is combined with Costa's extensive marginal notes that provide information about the people, ideas, and books mentioned in the text. The notes also make explicit the course of Darwin's arguments, compare Darwin's ideas and examples with modern findings, provide information from his later editions, notebooks and letters, and make the significance of various statements clearer. It is useful for a thorough and thoughtful reading of this influential book. – Sally Dougherty (July 2009)