Reviews for Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

The average rating for Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-09-12 00:00:00 Greg Badiguian Let me tell you how I got to this book. You may already know the dictum of Jean Paul Sartre about animals as 'animated things', that is animals are moving things without emotions. This has revolted me always, but only recently I delved into this, subsequent to my encounter with a calf. I have been observing this calf being licked tenderly by its mother cow, particularly on his head. This is a calf that always stays away from the rest of the calves. Then, after he came to see me over a number of days, once he approached me, while I was sitting down and observing. I tried to reach out, but he moved back. So I withdrew my hand and touched my own head, the way his mother does on his head. The calf's face relaxed. And, for an instant, his eyes brightened, and the skin around them crinkled as if he was smiling!! This threw me off for a while. I searched on Amazon and found this book written by Darwin. A really informative book, with lots of comparison between animals and us. You bet, my opinion on animals changed after that.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-04-10 00:00:00 Sheri Mizell This book is more a historical document than a scientific paper, by today's requirements for scientific documents. Darwing collects here his notes on the expressions of humans with a single chapter about animals and some referrences to monkeys, so the title is highly misleading (it annoyed me, anyways). Despite that, this work is at the root of understanding both human and animal behavior and the three principles of expression are now evidently the base of every modern theory on animal and human behavior and that, in itself, gives this book a historical value. Darwing depicts his notes on his own children, on various and un-measured sightings of human and animal beahvior (like "I once saw a girl doing ___ " or "my neighbour's dog once ___ ") which nower days would be completely unfit for scientific research. Those were the days, though, and for anyone interested or amused by the development of scientific thinking and research this book is an enjoyable gem. Another historical value this book has is in the fact that, in order to investigate human expression in human societies relatively unexposed and influenced by Eurpoean man, Darwin had a small army of informants at remote Biritsh colonies investigating and reporting of their experiences with the local natives. These informants were judges, policemen, missionaries and wives of various officials. With these times long gone (thankfully), it's a reminder and a documentation of the spirits of the time and the way these far-away cultures, still unchanged at the time, behaved. This book is not an easy read as the english is that of Victorian times and often words that mean one thing to us mean another, when he author is concerned, and the unabridged version hold a lot of repeating and coarse writing that's not for readers who just want an easy book to stare at. Still, it's a good book, and for historians with a love for human studies, it's a good book.