Résumé
Résumé de L’Expression des émotions chez l’homme et les animaux
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Readers drawn to psychology, evolution, and the origins of feelings will love this book, as will those fascinated by animals and babies. It suits admirers of close observation and Darwin's curious approach.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
What does a dog know that its master does not? Picture a dog marching up to a stranger, stiff and bristling. Then it sees the stranger is its owner. In an instant its ears drop, its tail wags, and its whole body curves in welcome.
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin, appeared in 1872. It rests on more than thirty years of looking at children, patients, zoo animals, and thirty-six replies to a questionnaire sent across the world. You get his three principles and the tears, frowns, snarls, shrugs and blushes they explain.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Expressions come from evolution, not special designFree
- 2Good evidence needs many kinds of observers
- 3Useful actions become habits that outlive their use
- 4Opposite feelings produce opposite gestures
- 5The excited nervous system acts on its own
- 6Animals show feelings in ways we can read
- 7Weeping grows out of screaming babies
- 8Grief writes itself in eyebrows and mouth corners
- 9Anger, scorn and fear keep traces of our animal past
- 10Blushing shows how much we care what others think
Point clé 1 sur 10
Expressions come from evolution, not special design
Before Darwin, most writers held that every species was created just as it is today. Sir Charles Bell taught that human facial muscles were a special provision for showing feeling. Darwin found this unconvincing. Apes carry the same facial muscles, and nobody would say monkeys were given them only to make grimaces.
He praises Dr Duchenne for careful photographs of faces moved by electric current. Yet even Duchenne said the Creator set each muscle moving by divine whim. Such an explanation fits every case, so it tells you nothing and stops the search.
Darwin starts instead from the view that species change over time. A bristling hair or a bared tooth may be a leftover from an ancestor who needed it. Monkeys and people both draw back the corners of the mouth when pleased, and a common ancestor accounts for that neatly. Every expression calls for a natural explanation.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 99,300 words
- Reading timeAbout 6 h 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about L’Expression des émotions chez l’homme et les animaux
What is The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals about?
It asks why feelings show in the face and body, and why they look alike across people and animals. Darwin offers three principles, habit, opposites and nervous overflow, and tests them on dogs, monkeys, infants, patients and travelers' reports.
What is the principle of antithesis in Darwin's book?
Antithesis means that a feeling opposite to one with a habitual expression calls out opposite movements, even if useless. His example is a dog that bristles and stiffens when hostile, then crouches and wags when it sees its master.
When was the book written and was it new for its time?
It was published in 1872, after Darwin had observed the subject since 1838. It was new because it treated expression as a product of evolution, and it used photographs and animal comparisons to support its claims.
What is the main message of the book?
Our smiles, tears, frowns and blushes are not arbitrary signs. They have natural origins in old habits and nervous reactions, shared in part with animals, and the same basic expressions appear in people all over the world.
Cite this edition
Darwin, Charles. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-expression-of-the-emotions-in-man-and-animals.
Darwin, C. (2026). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-expression-of-the-emotions-in-man-and-animals (Original work published 1872)
Darwin, Charles. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-expression-of-the-emotions-in-man-and-animals.
@book{darwin2026expression,
author = {Darwin, Charles},
title = {The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-expression-of-the-emotions-in-man-and-animals},
note = {First published 1872}
}
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