What is the title of Charles Darwin's seminal 1859 book?

Charles Darwin's seminal 1859 book is On the Origin of Species. Its full original title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

Published by John Murray on 24 November 1859, the book presented Darwin's evidence that species change over generations and share common ancestry. Its central mechanism was natural selection: inherited variations that help organisms survive and reproduce tend to become more common in later generations.

Darwin drew on observations from his five-year voyage aboard HMS Beagle, including the geographic distribution of animals and fossils in South America and the Galápagos Islands. He also incorporated years of research on breeding, geology, plants, animals, and correspondence with other naturalists. Alfred Russel Wallace independently developed a similar theory, prompting Darwin to publish sooner.

Readers often confuse this title with The Descent of Man, Darwin's 1871 book, which applied evolutionary ideas more directly to human origins. Another subtle mix-up concerns the title: later editions commonly used The Origin of Species, but the 1859 first edition began with “On the.”