Summary
Summary of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 6 h 55 min5 h 30 min fast, 8 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 99,300 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1872by Charles Darwin
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Expressions have a natural history
Why do people bare their teeth or draw back the corners of their mouths when pleased? Darwin looks for answers in the history of species, rather than in special design. Apes have the same facial muscles as humans, so those muscles cannot be explained simply as a special provision for human feeling.
A movement that seems puzzling today may once have helped an ancestor. This makes each expression something to investigate: a possible trace of shared ancestry, not a mystery that ends the search.
Key idea 2
Faces need more than one witness
Darwin knows how easily observers see what they expect in a face.
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Key idea 3
Useful actions leave lasting habits
A dog scratches a carpet before lying down, repeating the movements its wild ancestors used to trample grass.
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Key idea 4
Opposite feelings reverse the body
A hostile dog holds its head high, stiffens its tail, and points its ears forward.
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Key idea 5
Strong feeling spills into movement
Not every bodily response can be explained by usefulness or an inherited habit.
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Key idea 6
Tears begin with the infant scream
Darwin traces weeping back to the face of a screaming baby.
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Key idea 7
Anger retains traces of animal action
A furious person may clench their fists and pull back their lips to expose their teeth, even though people rarely bite.
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Key idea 8
Blushing answers to other people's opinions
Blushing turns Darwin's attention toward our awareness of other people.
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Key idea 9
A small movement carries a history
Darwin brings expressions together through useful habits, opposite movements, and the direct action of the nervous system.
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Go deeper: the whole of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
About 7 h 10 min to read.Start freeWho it’s for
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.
What this book is
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.
In this summary
- 1Expressions have a natural historyFree
- 2Faces need more than one witness
- 3Useful actions leave lasting habits
- 4Opposite feelings reverse the body
- 5Strong feeling spills into movement
- 6Tears begin with the infant scream
- 7Anger retains traces of animal action
- 8Blushing answers to other people's opinions
- 9A small movement carries a history
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 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Darwin gather evidence from different kinds of observers?
Right. “A belief is stronger when it is tested against several kinds of evidence.”Not quite. “A belief is stronger when it is tested against several kinds of evidence.”
What does Darwin's principle of antithesis explain?
Right. “When a feeling is the direct opposite of one that has a habitual expression, the body tends to do the opposite, though it serves no purpose.”Not quite. “When a feeling is the direct opposite of one that has a habitual expression, the body tends to do the opposite, though it serves no purpose.”
What connects shyness, shame, and modesty in Darwin's account of blushing?
Right. “The causes are shyness, shame and modesty, and the common thread is self-attention.”Not quite. “The causes are shyness, shame and modesty, and the common thread is self-attention.”
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About 7 h 10 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
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 The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
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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