Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen - Hardcover

Ball, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847922899 ISBN 13: 9781847922892

Publisher: Bodley Head, 2014

Synopsis

How would you achieve invisibility? If you could become invisible, what would you do? What challenges would you face? These are perennially fascinating questions, raising moral dilemmas and prompting scientific investigations as well as inspiring many myths and legends about magic rings and cloaks of invisibility. This wide-ranging cultural history of the concept of invisibility embraces Plato and HG Wells, medieval occultism and quantum theory, zebras' stripes and the optical camouflage used on military ships.

About this title

Review:

"As a harvest of fascinating facts delivered with sharp wit and insight, it is hard to fault" (Robert Douglas-Fairhurst Daily Telegraph)

"Intriguing" (John Carey Sunday Times)

"A fascinating compendium... Another author might struggle to manage such an esoteric collection [of stories of invisibility] but Mr Ball’s writing is incisive enough to keep the different elements hanging and working together" (The Economist)

"Ball marshals his material with deftness and charm" (Literary Review)

"[A] fantastic feast of ideas and information on the subject... In this enthralling book, Philip Ball’s elegant and intelligent mastery...is very evident indeed" (Evening Standard)

Book Description:

The invisible is one of the most enduringly seductive ideas in human history. This is its biography.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bodley Head
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1847922899
• ISBN 13: 9781847922892
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336