Darwin has had much written about his life, and so we have much to compare this biography to.

I will say that the author turned Darwin's early life into a very readable tale. The end of his life is harder material to deal with, and again the author made it acceptably digestible.

My problem, though, is that we know about quite a bit of darkness in Darwin's life, and though this book doesn't completely shy away from it, I do feel that the author falls prey to portraying Darwin as somewhat above fault.

It is not that we need to see biographies that put the all of the flaws on full display, but when we have figures so mythologized as Darwin, it is both useful and interesting to know about the more human aspects of their character, without the aura of their historical significance. 

It is almost a direct equation that the more impact a person had on the world, the more distorted is their biography, for better or worse. It is not that I felt any particular part of this book was a lie, rather that there seems to be so much missing that the character we are presented with, I doubt has much resemblance to the actual person Darwin once was. 

Could have been better, don't really recommend.