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The Selfish Gene cover art

The Selfish Gene

Written by: Richard Dawkins
Narrated by: Richard Dawkins,Lalla Ward
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Publisher's Summary

Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands to rethink their beliefs about life.

In his internationally best-selling, now classic, volume, The Selfish Gene, Dawkins explains how the selfish gene can also be a subtle gene. The world of the selfish gene revolves around savage competition, ruthless exploitation, and deceit, and yet, Dawkins argues, acts of apparent altruism do exist in nature. Bees, for example, will commit suicide when they sting to protect the hive, and birds will risk their lives to warn the flock of an approaching hawk.

©1989 Richard Dawkins (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

What the critics say

"Dawkins first book, The Selfish Gene, was a smash hit.... Best of all, Dawkins laid out this biology - some of it truly subtle - in stunningly lucid prose. (It is, in my view, the best work of popular science ever written.)" (H. Allen Orr, Professor of Biology, University of Rochester, in The New York Review of Books)

What listeners say about The Selfish Gene

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Life changing book

I read the Selfish Gene for the first time more than 25 years ago and I considered at that time and even today a life changing book. It really is extraordinary how the book is formulated and written, the conclusions are astonishing. Listening to it was good but to fully appreciate it you have to read it and stop at times to reflect on what you are reading and understand it fully.
It is Richard Dawkins as his best, I also recommend The Blind Watchmaker and River Out of Eden.

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10 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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The Definitive Discussion: Evolution Mechanistics

Dawkins tackles the questions: "Why are Genes preserved and passed on to Descendents? How does that work?"
He presents an exploration of the packaging of Chromosomes ("Replicators") into Organisms ("Vehicles"), presented in a way that's convincing. He presents a brilliant argument that Altruism is eminently rational without using Group Selection theory. He breaks down concepts like 'Evolutionarily Stable Strategies' into basic easily understood models.
This treatment is, in my opinion, much better than his dicussions of atheist principles. Dawkins sticks to Nuts & Bolts in this one, including 'End Notes' added throughout the text where he responds to criticisms and points out where newer research/theory added to (and sometimes countered) his thesis.

The tandem of readers (Dawkins himself and Lalla Ward) trade off description frequently - a nice format for a book like this (where a single voice could easily become difficult to concentrate on). Neither are particularly engrossing and despite the frequent novelty I lost interest at points.

This most informative exploration is worth 8.5 out of 10 stars

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7 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars

Not very suitable as an audiobook

While there were a lot of informative material in the book and I learned a great deal, the book better be read using hard/soft copy rather than as an audiobook. The reason is that it happened many times that the writer has gone into details about an issue which was not interesting to me. If it was not an audiobook I could have easily skipped that section, but here I can only go to next chapter or jump 30 seconds which don't work very well.

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7 people found this helpful

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Great version

This edition is very well structured, saying the endnotes when needed gives a very good flow. Dawkins comments on his critics are really funny.

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I couldn't get through it

Too long. Too complex. Different narrators make a difficult topic even more difficult to understand. Likely I'm just not smart enough.

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3 people found this helpful

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A great intro to neo-darwinism

Thought provoking and easy to follow, with fascinating examples and a great flow which has found a very good tradeoff between scientific accuracy and its appeal to general audiences

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    3 out of 5 stars
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A bit too long.

I love Dawkins books, but I think an abridged version would get the job done.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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An expansion of my understanding of evolution

Outstanding work, this hugely helped me understand replicators as the agents of evolution. Loved it.

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Timeless Dawkins classic

One can read this book any number of times through the ages and not be fascinated about who we are at a very fundamental level. The end notes and subsequent updates from newer studies and experiments are very useful.

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    4 out of 5 stars

A must read!

An outrageous view on life. A real eye opener and puts many things in perspective.

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