I enjoyed this story, but I may have been biased because of my love of Darwin's story and science in general. I admire Charles and Emma's philosophies and lives. They were a kind and thoughtful couple who wanted the best for everyone. I liked the way their families were open and children were allowed to voice opinions and have their own thoughts. They were progressive in a time when most people of their class were oppressing labor and endorsing slavery and barely seeing their children. I liked how much of the book was quoting actual correspondence between Charles and others. Charles's humor really shone through. His way of seeing the world as one big science experiment cracked me up and also made me admire his scientific thought process. He made a pro and con list about getting married. He was constantly experimenting on his children and making observations on how they were like animals. 
 "Children have an uncommon pleasure in hiding themselves and skulking about in shrubbery. When other people are about: this is analogous to young pigs hiding themselves." 
 "...Charles struggled with which love came first--beetles or Fanny. Fanny was not pleased with the competition." Ha ha ha! 
 He wrote about the terrible things like slavery that he saw his fellow countrymen doing. 
 "These deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbors as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on Earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty." Too right. I can't figure out how they treasured liberty so much and enslaved others. It makes zero sense. 
 He described the people of England at the time as "destitute of faith, yet terrified of skepticism." He was struggling with his faith and knew that many others were as well, but it was terrible to actually voice doubts since society was not kind to nonconformers. 
 "It is on that feeling of sublimity, even greater than one feels when standing atop a mountain and looking at a glorious view, that religions are based." Charles saw so many wonderful things on his trip and in his life. 
 Darwin had many things to bring him down and he could have despaired more, but he kept working and enjoying the good things his life brought him. I admire that life view. He defined happiness as "the number of pleasant ideas passing through mind in given time." :) 
 The book lover in me was horrified to read that he was prone to pulling out the pages he wanted from books and tossing the rest! 
 "When it was first said that the sun stood still and the world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei, as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science." Good old Charles pointing out what is said now by new scientists. Science is true no matter what you believe. :) 
 Charles respected anyone's right to believe whatever they liked. He wouldn't deny anyone their beliefs. "But for him, science was the way to get the answers." 
 When the superstitious and supernatural craze hit his family, he declared it rubbish and "He thought it was too bad that people spent so much time and energy investigating the supernatural when there was so much to figure out about reality." This was true. Darwin spent so much time studying just barnacles that he knew exactly how much there was in the world to still figure out! 
 I laughed so hard at his obsession with worms late in life. He was experimenting on them and trying to train them and even Emma got interested and would watch them for hours. I will never take a worm for granted again.