Book Overview
In a brilliant illumination of the Renaissance mind, acclaimed Irish novelist John Banville tells the story of Johannes Kepler. Wars, witchcraft, and disease rage throughout Europe. For this court mathematician, vexed by domestic strife, appalled by the religious upheavals that have driven him from exile to exile, and vulnerable to the whims of his eccentric patrons, astronomy is a quest for some form of divine order. For all the mathematical precision of his exploration, though, it is a seemingly elusive quest until he makes one glorious and profound discovery.
Related Subjects
Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Literary Literature & Fiction World LiteratureCustomer Reviews
Rated 5 starsExcellent Biographical Novel
Close on the heels of finishing Banville's novel Doctor Copernicus, a story based on the life of Nicholas Copernicus, I started reading this novel on the life of Johannes Kepler. I had enjoyed Mr. Banville's book on Copernicus but I found that I enjoyed this book on Kepler even more. In terms of structure and power of prose, the two books are much the same but in Kepler Banville seems to know his man much better. Doctor...
0Report
Rated 5 starsThe Music of the Spheres
John Banville takes his astonomical fiction "Doctor Copernicus" to the next stage in "Kepler." Both books are powerful feats of the imagination, in which Banville attempts to re-create that curious and pregnant stage in history when the medieval world was giving way to the first stirrings of modernity. Amid the tumult of the Thirty Years War, which would have have such a large impact on the future of Europe and indeed the...
0Report
Rated 5 starsIncreidible and interesting
I love this book from start to finish. It is a little know book about Kepler and the trials and tribulations he had to endure in his dogmatic era. The workings of brilliance shine forth in this novel. A must for history lovers also.
0Report
Rated 5 starsinfinite theories to fit finite data -> the spiralling in
Kepler experienced, on the most personal level, the difference between astrology and astronomy. His initial theories, based on geometry but not yet algebraically sensible, seemed to fit the amazingly-accurate measurements of Tycho Brahe, but there was a deeper elegance to discover in the elliptical orbits. Since infinite theories fit any finite set of experimental data points, and science (as Popper observed) "tells us...
0Report
Rated 5 starsA work of shining light
There are only a few writers, in my experience, that are able to express melancholy and madness with a twist of humour. Even fewer who must have devoted as much time in reseach as in writing. John Banvilles' words have he ring of truth about them, his utterances are masterpieces. This is a book of treasures.
0Report
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
