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Rating: 4 Stars


The author tells two parallel stories about two 18th century German historical figures - mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and botanist Alexander von Humboldt. The two men eventually meet in 1828, but the book tells their about their lives and discoveries leading to that point.

The book started slow for me, but soon became engrossing. It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between both men and read about their adventures and mishaps.

Pre-2016 review:

*** 1/2

A semi-fictional account of the respective lives of Carl Friedrich Gauss, of the normal/bell curve fame (among other mathematical "discoveries", and Alexander von Humboldt, explorer/geologist/naturalist of the Amazon and Central America, until their meeting in 1828. A must-read for nerds, like myself, but also to understand how these two men have contributed to the development of scientific knowledge. It is well written, without being swamped with technical terms, and very easy to read. The ending kind of disappointed me, I was probably expecting more to come out of their meeting (well, Eugene's arrest provided meat to the bones I guess).

Interesting fictionalised account of the lives of two noted 18th century scientists - Alexander von Humboldt who travels down the Orinoco and climbs Chimborazo, and Carl Friedrich Gauss who stays in Germany and develops theories in mathematics, physics and astronomy.

This book reminded me a bit of Mason & Dixon by Pynchon - we have the contrasting characters (although here the two scientists do not meet till late in life) and a lot of measuring and surveying, and the narrative has a dry and irreverent tone that I found very amusing. It certainly brings out the eccentricity of the characters.

This was much more readable and engaging than I was expecting, and full of interesting detail about the history of scientific research, skilfully integrated into the story of two great figures.