The Selfish Gene was dropped. The book contains no illustrations. The book has been translated into at least 23 languages including Arabic, Thai and Turkish. In 2006, a 30th-anniversary edition was published with the Trivers foreword and a new introduction by the author. It was accompanied by a "festschrift" entitled "" (2006). In March 2006, a special event entitled "The Selfish Gene": Thirty Years On was held at the London School of Economics. In March 2011, Audible Inc published an audiobook edition narrated by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward. In 2016, Oxford University Press published a 40th anniversary edition with a new epilogue,
Alternatives to evolution by natural selection denied, explanations of evolution such as Lamarckism, catastrophism, orthogenesis, vitalism, structuralism and mutationism (called saltationism before 1900) were entertained. Different factors motivated people to propose non-Darwinian mechanisms of evolution. Natural selection, with its emphasis on death and competition, did not appeal to some naturalists because they felt it immoral, leaving little room for teleology or the concept of progress in the development of life. Some who came to accept evolution, but disliked natural selection, raised religious objections. Others felt that evolution was an inherently progressive process that natural selection alone was insufficient to explain. Still others felt that nature, including