A Science Canon (Ian McEwan)

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

The Guardian, 15 Books

Thirty years ago, Richard Dawkins published his groundbreaking book The Selfish Gene. Ian McEwan argues that it is part of a long history of literary science writing, in which the pursuit of truth and the excitement of new ideas is conveyed in luminous prose

This list was originally published in 2006 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
15787 Advancement Of Learning Francis Bacon 1605 British English
6363 The Feeling Of What Happens Antonio Damasio 1999 Portuguese English
15787 The Expression Of The Emotions In Man And Animals Charles Darwin 1872 British English
2300 The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins 1976 British English
17010 The Fabric Of Reality David Deutsch 1997 British English
1383 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
863 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems Galileo 1632 Italian Italian
3446 The Elegant Universe Brian Greene 1999 American English
2229 A Treatise of Human Nature David Hume 1739 British English
17010 This Is Biology Ernst Mayr 1997 German English
3056 The Language Instinct Steven Pinker 1994 American English
17010 Nature Via Nurture Matt Ridley 2003 British English
4163 Letters On England Voltaire 1734 French French
14901 Explicar El Mundo Steven Weinberg 2015 English
4371 The Diversity of Life E. O. Wilson 1992 American English