On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life and Tumultuous Times of Sir Christopher Wren - Softcover

Jardine, Lisa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006095910X ISBN 13: 9780060959104

Publisher: Perennial, 2004

Synopsis

A portrait of Royal Society founder Christopher Wren describes his mathematical and scientific genius as well as his design and construction of St. Paul's Cathedral and other public structures in seventeenth-century England. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

On A Grander Scale: The Outstanding Career of Sir Christopher Wren is Lisa Jardine's (aptly titled) expansive and scholarly biography of the architect responsible for some of London's finest buildings. Wren was not only an extremely talented architect; he was also a gifted mathematician, inventor, anatomist and astronomer. The latter interest, Jardine reveals, shaped his designs for the Greenwich Observatory, St Paul's cathedral and the Monument to the Great Fire of London, which was constructed with a scientific laboratory in its basement.

Illuminating Wren's perpetual commitment, and his contributions, to science forms the major part of this study. (Later in life, Wren himself complained that he "had been obliged to spend all his time in rubbish" instead of working on his true vocation, science.) One of the most compelling aspects of Jardine's book, however, proves to be her thorough examination of the influence of the regicide on Wren¹s life and career. Wren's father and uncle were distinguished Royalists who idolised the martyred Charles I during the Commonwealth era. At the Restoration, Charles II rewarded faithful old Royalists by giving them and their offspring senior positions in his deeply nepotistic court. Wren and many of his circle--including John Evelyn, Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle--were recipients of such patronage. As this impressive work shows, the ideals of the Royal restoration and the architect's own ambitious building schemes were always inextricably linked.--Travis Elborough

Review:

'A wonderful book which looks set to be the definitive life of Wren for a long time to come' –Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday

'Jardine writes with ease, style, enthusiasm and humanity'
–Kerry Downes, TLS

‘Engrossing’
The New Yorker

'A full and fascinating biography...Jardine is particularly good on the extraordinary width of Wren's interests and achievements'
–Antonia Fraser, New Statesman

'A great fist of an intellectual biography'
–Andrew Saint, Guardian

'Imaginative, fluent and scholarly'
–Linda Colley, The Times

An 'extraordinary story...told with relish by Lisa Jardine, whose qualifications for the task are exactly right, for it needs a rare combination of scientific knowledge, historical skill, and narrative power...It was a life of quiet courage and great achievement, and Jardine's celebration of it does it ample justice'
–AC Grayling, Independent on Sunday

'As we would expect from her, Jardine is excellent at placing Wren in the historical and intellectual context of his time...While going over familiar ground, she comes up with some startling discoveries'
–Gavin Stamp, Daily Telegraph

'Immensely detailed...Jardine, following the scientific trail, has constructed a book that is as much an account of a movement as a biography of a man...Like its subtitle, this book is on a grander scale than other recent Wren biographies and is probably as definitive as current studies allow...Amazing value for the sheer amount of historical research; it sheds much light on Wren's extraordinary times'
–Hugh Pearman, Sunday Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Perennial
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 006095910X
• ISBN 13: 9780060959104
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 624