Loosely based on the lives of 19th-century explorer Alexander von Humboldt and a contemporary, mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, Kehlmann's novel, a German bestseller widely heralded as an exemplar of "new" German fiction, injects musty history with shots of whimsy and irony. Humboldt voyages to South America to map the Orinoco River, climb the Chimborazo peak in Ecuador and ...
Loosely based on the lives of 19th-century explorer Alexander von Humboldt and a contemporary, mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, Kehlmann's novel, a German bestseller widely heralded as an exemplar of "new" German fiction, injects musty history with shots of whimsy and irony. Humboldt voyages to South America to map the Orinoco River, climb the Chimborazo peak in Ecuador and measure "every river, every mountain and every lake in his path." Gauss is the hedgehog to Humboldt's fox, leaping out of bed on his wedding night to jot down a formula and rarely leaving his hometown of Göttingen. The two meet at a scientific congress in 1828, when Germany is in turmoil after the fall of Napoleon. Other luminaries appear throughout the novel, including a senile Immanuel Kant, Louis Daguerre and Thomas Jefferson. The narrative is notable for its brisk pacing, lively prose and wry humor (curmudgeonly Gauss laments, for instance, how "every idiot would be able to... invent the most complete nonsense" about him 200 years hence), which keenly complements Kehlmann's intelligent, if not especially deep, treatment of science, mathematics and reason at the end of the Enlightenment.
German romanticism is awaken by the hypothesis - what if basic ideas shaped our nowadays world is more derived from personal fever when science was deemed as a 'cult' rather than logical inevitabiliti...German romanticism is awaken by the hypothesis - what if basic ideas shaped our nowadays world is more derived from personal fever when science was deemed as a 'cult' rather than logical inevitabilities proclaimed&verified by its overwhelming effectiveness afterwards? Then, how should we weigh those people bearing contradictory ideas to their age? (展开)
First time read a seemingly weird novel, but very interesting, insightful. It shows two different genius' different ways of measuring the universe around them, one prefers to stay at home and keep th... First time read a seemingly weird novel, but very interesting, insightful. It shows two different genius' different ways of measuring the universe around them, one prefers to stay at home and keep thinking mathematics issues, the other want to adventure across globe and collect nature samples. Genius not always decent, sometimes evilly desirable. (展开)
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丹尼尔·凯尔曼 作者
红皇后
南海出版公司2015版
小庄
上海三联书店2006版
海水未蓝
上海三联书店2006版
一卷残书惹夜归
南海出版公司2015版
伯鲁乃列斯基
南海出版公司2015版
0 有用 came1 2018-05-27 23:44:32
German romanticism is awaken by the hypothesis - what if basic ideas shaped our nowadays world is more derived from personal fever when science was deemed as a 'cult' rather than logical inevitabiliti... German romanticism is awaken by the hypothesis - what if basic ideas shaped our nowadays world is more derived from personal fever when science was deemed as a 'cult' rather than logical inevitabilities proclaimed&verified by its overwhelming effectiveness afterwards? Then, how should we weigh those people bearing contradictory ideas to their age? (展开)
0 有用 店小二侃世界 2019-05-18 21:32:29
First time read a seemingly weird novel, but very interesting, insightful. It shows two different genius' different ways of measuring the universe around them, one prefers to stay at home and keep th... First time read a seemingly weird novel, but very interesting, insightful. It shows two different genius' different ways of measuring the universe around them, one prefers to stay at home and keep thinking mathematics issues, the other want to adventure across globe and collect nature samples. Genius not always decent, sometimes evilly desirable. (展开)