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Measuring the World recreates the parallel but contrasting lives of two geniuses of the German Enlightenment - the naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and the mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss. Towards the end of the 18th century, these two brilliant young Germans set out to measure the world. Humboldt, a Prussian aristocrat schooled for greatness, negotiates savannah and jungle, travels down the Orinoco, climbs the highest mountain known to man, counts head lice, and explores every hole in the ground. Gauss, a man born in poverty who will be recognized as the greatest mathematician since Newton, does not even need to leave his home in Gottingen to know that space is curved. He can run prime numbers in his head, cannot imagine a life without women and yet jumps out of bed on his wedding night to jot down a mathematical formula. Daniel Kehlmann has produced a novel of rare charm and readability, distinguished by its sly humour and unforgettable characterisation. The author's acute powers of observation and ability to write memorable dialogue shine through its every page. Measuring the World marks the UK debut of a distinctive and original voice in contemporary fiction.
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Measuring the World has proved nothing less than a literary sensation... the novel has sold more than 600,000 copies in Germany, knocking J K Rowling and Dan Brown off the bestseller lists ... it is the most successful German novel since Patrick Suskind's Perfume ... 31-year-old Daniel Kehlmann is a literary wunderkind already being compared to Nabokov and Proust' Guardian (Guardian)
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Reviews for Measuring the World:
Daniel Kehlmann's Measuring the World announces the arrival of a new generation...Kehlmann is a master of irony ... already a figure of European stature...(he) has it in him to be the great German novelist that the world had given up waiting for - Sunday Telegraph
...a dazzling success ... fantastically imagined...there's an energy and enthusiasm about this book that is so refreshing and true to the spirit of the time in which Humboldt and Gauss lived - Daily Telegraph
The novel belies the German reputation for humourlessness and the author very much plays it for laughs without demeaning his protagonists. What he conveys so well is the presence of two extraordinary personalities...It is a delightful read - Literary Review
A historical novel that handles facts with the delight of a wide-eyed child handling exaggerated fictions. With a boundless sense of fun and an impressive command of his subject, he explores scientific and metaphorical ideas of opposites, parallels and distances, and wonders - against the backdrop of the universe - what their ultimate significance could be .... A deceptively clever novel - understated and boldly ambitious in its scope - The Observer
Kehlmann brings to life the intellectual world both men inhabit with a dazzling combination of wry humour and humane observation... Kehlmann doesn't just illuminate the lives of these two men, he captures the wondrous nature of the universe through the prism of uncompromising intellectual ideas - Metro
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- Publisherriverrun
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 1847240461
- ISBN 13 9781847240460
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages272
- Rating
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