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Description
The Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea re-creates the life of the Renaissance mathematical genius Johannes Kepler and his incredible drive to chart the orbits of the planets and the geometry of the universe.
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.
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.
Product Details
| Publisher | Vintage |
| Publish Date | October 05, 1993 |
| Pages | 208 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9780679743705 |
| Dimensions | 7.9 X 5.2 X 0.5 inches | 0.4 pounds |
About the Author
John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He has been the recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1976), the Guardian Fiction Prize (1981), the Guinness Peat Aviation Book Award (1989), and the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction (1997). He has been both shortlisted for the Booker Prize (1989) and awarded the Man Booker Prize (2005) as well as nominated for the Man Booker International Prize (2007). Other awards include the Franz Kafka Prize (2011), the Austrian State Prize for European Literature (2013), and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (2014). He lives in Dublin.
Reviews
"An informed and lively account of an important time and personality by an author of seriousness and talent." —The New York Times
"What Banville writes is historically accurate, but his [are] a novelist's truth, and ... a lover's prose." —Newsweek
"Narrative art ... at a positively symphonic level." —The Guardian
"Superbly illuminates the man, the time, and the everlasting quest for knowledge." —Observer
"One knows one is in the presence of a writer extraordinary. Wearing his vast research lightly, Mr Banville not only summons Kepler and his company of vivid souls but leads us into the small dark rooms." —The Sunday Telegraph
"This very distinguished novel ... is done with very considerable skill; it suggests that this is what such a life must indeed have been like and the result is a wonderfully human figure, rife with feelings, principles, regrets and courage." —The Sunday Times
"An outstandingly good novel ... a novel that dramatizes and celebrates intellectual passion. Which makes it a very rare novel indeed." —The Irish Press
"What Banville writes is historically accurate, but his [are] a novelist's truth, and ... a lover's prose." —Newsweek
"Narrative art ... at a positively symphonic level." —The Guardian
"Superbly illuminates the man, the time, and the everlasting quest for knowledge." —Observer
"One knows one is in the presence of a writer extraordinary. Wearing his vast research lightly, Mr Banville not only summons Kepler and his company of vivid souls but leads us into the small dark rooms." —The Sunday Telegraph
"This very distinguished novel ... is done with very considerable skill; it suggests that this is what such a life must indeed have been like and the result is a wonderfully human figure, rife with feelings, principles, regrets and courage." —The Sunday Times
"An outstandingly good novel ... a novel that dramatizes and celebrates intellectual passion. Which makes it a very rare novel indeed." —The Irish Press
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