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, climbs the highest mountain then known to man, counts head lice on the heads of the natives, and explores every hole in the ground.
Gauss, a man born in poverty who will be recognised as the greatest mathematician since Newton, does not even need to leave his home in Göttingen 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.
Measuring the World is a novel of rare charm and readability, distinguished by its sly humour and unforgettable characterization. It brings the two eccentric geniuses to life, their longings and their weaknesses, their balancing act between loneliness and love, absurdity and greatness, failure and success.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
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
I felt so enlivened by reading this delightful novel, finishing the book
with such good cheer and hope... the sense of boundless possibility, the
excitement of discovery...optimism and hope...a wonderful novel instantly
clamouring to be made my top choice - Sue Baker, Publishing News
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
£ 2.09
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. At the end of the eighteenth century, two brilliant and eccentric young scientists set out to measure the world. Alexander von Humboldt swashbuckled his way across the globe: navigating ocean and jungle, eating with cannibals, swimming with electric eels, lowering himself into volcanoes and scaling the highest mountain known to man. Carl Friedrich Gauss, on the other hand, stayed at home, using the power of thought to battle his way into exotic mathematical realms and the landmark realization that space is curved. Measuring the World brings these two geniuses to life, capturing their balancing act between loneliness and love, absurdity and greatness, failure and success. At the end of the eighteenth century, two brilliant and eccentric young scientists set out to measure the world. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781847241146
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781847241146
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 272. Seller Inventory # 6392900
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9781847241146-GDR
Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 036874fc476d7f395e927328e5c6ba20
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 272 pages. 7.80x5.08x0.83 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __184724114X
Book Description Condition: New. 2007. Reprint. Paperback. The story of two Enlightenment genuises who set out to measure the world. Num Pages: 272 pages. BIC Classification: FA; FYT. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 196 x 131 x 20. Weight in Grams: 256. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781847241146
Book Description Condition: New. 2007. Reprint. Paperback. The story of two Enlightenment genuises who set out to measure the world. Num Pages: 272 pages. BIC Classification: FA; FYT. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 196 x 131 x 20. Weight in Grams: 256. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9781847241146