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The first volume of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology was published in
1830. An influential and contentious work, it affected contemporary ideas of
time from the Earth’s evolution to the ancestry of mankind—and it shook
religious belief. Lyell also described scientific methods and explained science
and rational conclusion successfully to a lay public. James Secord has abridged
the three volumes of the original to an approachable length, and included the
original illustrations. The revolutionary flavour of this classic is still
detectable. Published by Penguin, £9.99, ISBN 014043528X.