Product Description
This title was printed in Russia for use in English for advanced English learners of Mathematics. Terminology will assist native Russian speakers. ... Read more

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Text in English and Chinese. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The French Mathematician is a fictional memoir of Evariste Galois, the mathematical genius who made innovations in algebra before his untimely death in 1832. Galois narrates the book, describing how he sought solace in "the order and certainty of geometry" during the social and political upheaval in France at the time. The book chronicles his adolescence, his growth as a mathematician, his political awakening, and his death in a duel. Tom Petsinis teaches math at a university in Australia, and this is the first of his books to be published in the United States. The bare outline of Petsinis's book is interesting, but unfortunately The French Mathematician is somewhat overburdened with flowery language and hallucinatory dream sequences. When Galois works hard on a math problem, he tends to fall into a reverie, like this: "My heart was now beating faster than usual. No longer Evariste Galois, I am impersonal, at one with the eternal mind responsible for mathematics, impelled forward to discover the mystery at the center of the labyrinth.But just as the solution is within reach, I am distracted by the scent of chamomile." A scantily clad temptress interrupts the young genius's reverie during this hallucination and several others. Even though Galois struggles to separate himself from the distractions of the material world, a love affair ultimately brings on his demise.Evariste Galois was probably a fascinating, difficult person, but the budding mathematician Petsinis describes in this book is not a very likable or interesting character--he's a sort of humorless and bitter teen. --Jill Marquis Book Description
While growing up in revolutionary France, Evariste Galois immersed himself in the study of mathematics, a pursuit that allowed him a welcome glimpse of order at a time when chaos consumed his country. Arrogant, ambitious, and brilliant, Galois dreamed of solving the quintic, a complex equation that had baffled many talented mathematicians before him--but after his father's mysterious death, he devoted himself to Republican politics with the same fervent energy he had applied to his mathematical studies. Rich in historical detail and bursting with intellectual passion, this captivating novel describes a genius's valiant quest for truth--in a turbulent and uncertain era that in many ways mirrors the one in which we live today.

"An engaging historical novel."-- Kirkus Reviews

"In this remarkable novel, Petsinis resurrects a young, overemotional, impetuous, and headstrong genius whose personal failures read like a Hugo novel but whose voice resonates more clearly now with the passage of time."-- Booklist

"Draws a vivid picture of post-Napoleon France....Petsinis makes mathematical passion accessible...a fine account of revolutionary France and a look into a mind that made great discoveries."-- The Stranger (Seattle, WA) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Galois, the man --
-- but almost nothing of Galois the mathematician.

Galois founded a branch of math that still bears his name, the study of Galois fields. They're in use everywhere today, from the nearest cell phone or DVD to the most distant interplanetary probe. But the book barely mentions his mathematical achievements and certainly doesn't describe them, so let's move along.

Galois himself has all the makings of a great romantic figure. It's a matter of historical fact that was mathematical prodigy, with important work published during his short life. It's also true that he died in a duel at age 21, after spending his final night organizing his mathematical notes for posterity. That, plus simply living through a time of intense political upheaval, let alone being involved in it, makes him a character quite able to capture the imagination. Petsinis' imagination has been quite completely captivated.

If anything, there may be a bit too much imagination in this rendering of Galois' life. It's told in the first person, from Galois' own point of view, for which historical justification is thin at best. With so little fact at hand, Petsinis has created a wildly emotional character. In this presentation, Galois seemed quite incapable of moderation in any feeling, driven continually between white-hot intensity and blackest depression. Every page seemed to sizzle with overheated passion for math, for his politics, for his family, or for what he had for breakfast - I was tempted to set an ice pack on the book more than once.

Given all that was obviously fabricated in the cause of a good story, I'm not sure how much to trust any of the other facts that might have historical reality. How much was his mathematical career actually affected by perceptions of his politics? The paranoid view here suggests that the mathematical establishment conspired to create a wall of silence around the firebrand's work during his lifetime. On the whole, inertia and absent-mindedness look like equally good explanations.

I find this a fair (if wildly expressive) novel, a questionable biography, and a disappointing tribute to the mathematician and his mathematical achievements. It is very tempting to romanticize Galois the man, and Petsinis has fallen completely for that temptation.

//wiredweird

Unsympathetic protagonist, but a well-done novel
This fictionalized account of mathematician Evariste Galois's life ushers us directly and intimately into the mind of one whose discoveries continue to influence present-day nuclear physics and genetic engineering.

Having had his early education at home under the tutelage of his literary-minded mother, fifteen-year-old Evariste Galois is sent to Paris to complete his education.A sensitive, arrogant genius, he detests the school, the teachers, and all the other students.Then he is exposed to mathematics for the first time and knows he has found that thing that so few of us ever do: his calling.To Evariste, mathematics is its own reward, a refuge of logic in a chaotic world.It is the key to unlock the secrets of the universe.It is a new and superior religion.He vows he will be the first to solve the quintic, a complex equation that has confounded many great minds.

There are obstacles in his path to this goal.First, he must struggle to suppress his own emerging sexuality.Then, there are the schoolmates who continually goad and harass him to join their Republican groups.Less easily ignored are the grievous social inequities and turmoil surrounding him.When his father dies, an alleged suicide, Evariste at last begins to question his singular devotion to mathematics.

Evariste tells his own story, addressing himself to an imaginary biographer who shadows him throughout the book, experiencing events as he does, all in present tense.While this type of narration can be off-putting, Petsinis utilizes it respectably and often with great drama.He adeptly conveys to the reader information that the self-absorbed and oblivious protagonist himself misses.Petsinis's prose is rich with original and evocative metaphors and similes, and his flair for verb choice gives the story a distinctively realistic feel.

Egotistical and insolent, Evariste is difficult to like at the outset.Yet the reader soon glimpses the fragile and idealistic heart of an insecure young man possessed of remarkable mental gifts.As the story unfolds, the reader comes to understand the noble soul of Evariste Galois -- his consuming desire to give his life to a meaningful cause and to attain immortality through his work.

Genius distracted
There are many types of genius - obscure genius like that of the mathematician Ramanujan which defies analysis, persistent genius like JS Bach who produced an endless stream of inspired work through his long life, blocked genius like that of Einstein who produced a work of unquestionable genius but then - despite his qualities of innovation and analysis - was unable to progress with his next major theory through a significant period of his life (of course, no-one else has yet managed to achieve what he attempted).And the absent-minded professor is such an archetype.But Galois - the subject of this novel - shows himself to be the distracted genius.What could he have achieved if he had been supported properly by his peers - mentored as Ramanujan was?What might he have achieved if he had lived in a more stable political environment?

I enjoyed this novel although at times I thought it was a little long for the story it was telling.And Galois was depicted as such an unattractive self-assured but doubting person. I particularly didn't like his attitude towards people - especially women - as portrayed in the novel, anyway.It seemed that the negative in human behaviour had such a powerful influence that the positive - and surely he must have encountered some - was swept aside.But that would lead to, say, never eating an orange because one day one came across a bad one.

But I do have a philosophical objection to what this novel is - or isn't.Although I was attracted to the idea of dramatising the life of a mathematician because I believe it is imperative that we overcome the cultural acceptance of an inability to do mathematics - even a pride in not being asble to do mathematics - that seems to be all around me.And one step in this direction is to put people back into the subject.Who were Cauchy and Poisson whose names are attached to theorems and processes - and all the others so named.Cauchy and Poisson I mention because they are minor characters in 'The French Mathematician', and I hope Mr Petsinis has not done them an injustice with the bad press he has given them.

In 2000 I attended a seminar in Orlando, Florida.My wife and I took our two young boys (aged 4 and 6) with us so that they could experience some of the States, including, of course, Disneyland and Universal Studios. But later, when we reached NASA, we had to try and assure tham that this was real - not just another theme park.And then NASA undid the good work by showing a 3D movie of life in a space station - in the next century.Reality was confused with make believe again.What does this have to do with 'The French Mathemtician'?Well, it seems to me that the historic novel as this is - it is not history, a biography - is rather like a theme park.It does have elements of the real but these are so buried in the author's imagining that it becomes difficult to determine what is reality, how close the imagining comes to the way things really were.I enjoyed reading Mr Petsinis' realisation of the life of Galois and I hope I have a proper perspective on the man's life, and the times he lived in, but I do have doubts.

One word of advice for people who might read this novel hoping to also get some insights into Evariste Galois's mathematics - there is no mathematics in this novel.

Beautifully Written Novel of a Grand and Tragic Life
I have been interested in the life of Evariste Galois for some years now so I was delighted to find this book.Galois was a brilliant French mathematician, who may or may not have suffered from some form of epilepsy or depression and who, sadly, was killed under mysterious circumstances at the young age of twenty.

Galois' life is cloaked in mystery.We do know that he dreamed of solving the quintic, a complex mathematical equation that had eluded all the best minds of his time.He was the first person to formulate the concept of a finite group theory and then to apply this theory to solve one of the major mathematical problems of his era.

Although Galois seemed to live for pure mathematics and pure mathematics alone, he mysteriously gave up his feverish study to devote most of his time to the revolution that took place in France in 1830.Why Galois, who seemingly had little interest in politics, would brandish a knife and threaten the king, in front of Alexandre Dumas, no less, forms the basis for much of this book.

In this book, we learn of a most important letter Galois wrote on the night of May 29, 1832 to his friend, Auguste Chevalier.What we don't learn about, and what has been lost to history, are Galois' other manuscripts and, most interestingly, his brief love affair with Stéphanie du Motel.We also know that Galois fully expected to die when he did, but what we don't know is why he died or why, precisely, he expected his death to come about exactly as it did.

You certainly don't have to be a mathematician to love this book.You really don't even need much of an interest in math.Galois is such a compelling character that he makes a wonderful character study no matter what he was interested in.This book, aimed at the general reader, does not dwell unnecessarily on mathematical concepts and even when it does, it does so in such a way that it only adds beauty to the narrative and depth to the character of Galois.

Petsinis seems much more interested in capturing the psychological essence of Galois than in cataloging his mathematical and political conquests and, in my opinion, he succeeds wonderfully.This is a beautiful book and one that is a joy to read.Petsinis worked a seeming miracle in weaving the actual events in the life of Galois into his fictional narrative.We are left with nothing but the belief that Petsinis' Galois is the real Galois; that these were his thoughts and his feelings and his reasons for being.

Galois struggled with his emotions for most of his twenty years and Petsinis lets us feel this struggle.For example, Galois, even though being mesmerized by the enchanting du Motel, had an intrinsic aversion to both sex and romance.He was a genius par excellence, yet he was a dreamer as well, and sometimes this dreaminess would cause him to slip from the factual world of the mathematics he loved into a horrific fantasy world of which he wanted no part.

The life of Evariste Galois makes for a very difficult character study, but Petsinis has done a marvelous job.The French Mathematician is one of the most gorgeous books I have ever read and it makes one of the world's true geniuses so much more accessible.Evariste Galois led a grand but tragic life and Petsinis captures it in all its glory in this lyrical and beautifully written book.

A wonderfully written novel, you don't have to like math!
I would highly recommend "The French Mathematician" to fans of math, french history and even those who could care less about math.

This book follows Galois' discovery of his talents in mathematics and theconflicts in France that make him decide if he will follow his genius andstudy math, or join the revoultion for democracy in France.

This bookis well written and is full of wonderful imagery that puts you right inrevolutionary France.I would guess that most people could understand thepassion for democracy that the characters in the book have, but this bookalso helps you understand Galois' passion for mathematics. ... Read more

Book Description
Weeks' volume is a translation from the Latin of the third andlast edition of Waring's Meditationes algebraicae . Weeksincorporates many corrections and additions that had appearedseparately. The appendix offers the only critical review ofMeditationes ever published, written in 1923 by Franz X. Mayer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Delightful 'train book' for the Wonderland lover
I mention the 'train book' aspect because this book is just the size to tuck into a handbag. As one who loves Lewis Carroll's works, and has studied Victorian England in depth, I found this work to be a surprisingly rich, delightful treatment of Lewis Carroll's life and work.

It is not an in-depth study of all aspects of his life, and, somehow, I found it most refreshing that, unlike some books which are, there were no diversions into Freudian speculation or treatments of bizarre theories about Dodgson's ways. Instead, the reader is treated to a fairly thorough survey of biographical information and essentials of Lewis Carroll's writings.

The illustrations are exceptionally extensive, including many photographs (of or by Carroll), varied illustrations from editions of "Alice," and, as far as textual illustrations are concerned, excerpts from Dodgson's private correspondence and diaries. One comes to the end of the book with a sense of having covered an amazingly large scope. For example, other authors have mentioned (without showing) the supposedly notorious nude photographs of children which Dodgson prepared. This book not only includes the pictures (which tend to the cherubic, with no flavour of the erotic), but places them into the Victorian cultural perspective with taste and dignity.

The author's style is superb - with a blend of beautiful language, concise but thorough treatment of the material, and impressive dignity. There is none of the excesses common in many books on Lewis Carroll, where rash speculation and prurient "let's pander to the 21st century love for 'dirt'" ruin the essentials of the story. Lewis Carroll is presented in all his brilliance, humour, and eccentricity. The classic works, with all of their fancy, wit, and wonder, are not ruined by excessive analysis or so filled with 'dark' speculation that one forgets what every child can see: they are delightful diversions.

Pair this book with an annotated edition of Lewis Carroll's works, and you will have the perfect gift for anyone who has ever loved "Alice" and her creator. And creator indeed Carroll was, for, as this book shows well, the Alice of fiction was hardly a model of Alice Liddell. The author speaks in some detail of the relationship of the "real" Alice and Charles Dodgson, with no tired attempts to confuse them with the book's contents. As well, the references to other Victorian literature and art places Carroll's work, and the friendship with the Liddell family, in an enlightening perspective for the contomporary reader.

Witty, insightful, and extensively detailed for a pocket book, I would highly recommend this work for anyone who already loves Lewis Carroll or would like a further acquaintance.

Good for Carroll Fans
I hardly ever buy nonfiction but seeing this at Borders I knew I had to have it. Lewis Carrol is one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century, surpassing even Tolstoy,Dostoevsky,and Dickens. I have a completecollection of all of his works and enjoy them all(except for the mathpuzzles, math has never been my strongest point.) If you are a fan of LewisCarroll then this is the book for you. Gorgous illustrations andphotographs, an interesting and informative text, this is a wonderfullittle book to own. It is also informative if you are interested inVictorian England such as Iam (probably due to my Lewis Carroll fixation)There are also examples of Lewis Carrolls photography and pictures of theLiddle children. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the worldof Alice and who is obsessed with Mr. Dodgson's books.

Exceptional!
A small in size book, being about 5 x 6.It is printed on glossy paper with many photographs.It is an exceptional buy for the amount of money tendered.If you read anything by Mr. Carroll you have to have this booktoo.Mr. Carroll's work is a must for anyone writing anything.The simpletruth is his writing means nothingas far as plot, but his style isbrilliant.

Is there anyone out there that knows what the name of thewriting style used by Mr. Carroll.For instance his characters are tellinga story to someonesmallMr. Carroll aims his text at a small animal. The small animal answers back in small type.When someone is running andtalking, there are long drawn out sentences.

Content and presentation are excellent.
This book provides a well written description of the conditions and environment that led to the writing of the Alice books. The reader is immersed in Victorian culture both verbally and visually. The profuselyillustrated book is a joy to read and informative as well. It fills theniche between biography and textual analysis.

Joel Birenbaum, presidentof the Lewis Carroll Society of North America

A nice, simple introduction to the world of Lewis Carroll
This tidy, colorful book presents an evenly balanced look at the life andtimes of Lewis Carroll. The reproductions of rare photos are outstanding,and are cause enough to buy the book on it's own. The text aviods theloathesome practice of trying to find deep symbolism and imagery inCarroll's works, but rather focuses on them with a pleasant reverence. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The marvelous whimsy of Alice inWonderland masked unsparing revelations about the uncertainty of identity and impossibility of truly grasping reality--philosophical themes that biographers have dealt with far more comfortably than the now-famous fondness for little girls displayed by the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-98). This is certainly not true of British novelist and biographer Donald Thomas, who positively revels in the less savory interests of his subject, from prostitution to lunatic asylums. Nonetheless, this enjoyably gossipy volume renders the repressed Oxford lecturer, who took "Lewis Carroll" as his pen name, a curiously appealing figure. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Sue Woolfe's biography states that she knows nothing about mathematics.With the central event of her novel set in 1994, she ought to have had a fairly easy jobof finding out how math is done and discussed nowadays, and who does it and why.However, Woolfe's determination to humiliate her main character, middle-agedprodigy Frances Montrose, with the scorn of a unanimously badly behaved,testosterone-driven male mathematical establishment leads to her to untruth, fatallyundermining the premise and effect of her novel. Deliberately demonizing men asmates and as mathematicians is sexism of the worst kind. The multigenerationalfamilial dissonance and harmony of this book, its redeeming features, are lost inWoolfe's caricaturing of men and women and a science she does not understand. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Unengaging
I was disappointed in this novel with its layers upon layers of women and their daughters - chains rather than layers. And one of the women - shock, horror - had invested her hopes in her son who mysteriously disengages himself from the family. Of course I tried not to be influenced by the feminine in the message - and I have read many women writers (Anna Kavan is one of my favourite dozen writers and 'Let Me Alone' one of my top ten novels) - but I found myself trying to suppress the masculine in me, trying not to object to the way many men are portrayed in this novel.
In the end there were too many tears, too many disappointments, not enough mathematics, too many twists and turns, too many identical viewpoints. I have never actually attended a mathematics convention (and I wonder if Ms Woolfe has either), but I found the one described in 'Leaning towards Infinity' totally unconvincing.

Infinite reading
I wanted this book to continue. I loved it. I read it about the same time as some other books ...Hanna's Daughters was one, and I thought it had every bit as much to say about mother-daughter relationships. Also 'GutSymmetries' by Janette Winterson, which I did not like...this had more tosay about the mathematical woman genius.

It makes the point renderedover and over by Dale Spencer in 'Women of Ideas and What Men have Done ToThem' but in a fictionalised account, well plotted and without thehyperbole to which Spender is prone.

Woolfe is a good writer, and her useof language approaches the delights of Arundhati Roy in God of mall Things(but never surpasses).

Beautiful piece of writing
I loved it. Beautiful piece of prose. Funny, sad - some of the relationships heart-wrenchingly so. Haunted me for a long while after.

I think Carol Shields fans would like it.

Demanding, rewarding, stunning
A demanding, but very rewarding exploration of the destructiveness of unrecognised genius, through the lives of three generations of women. The mother is on the verge of discovering a new form of mathematics, but is driven mad by social isolation and betrayal. The narrator, her daughter, attempts to piece together her work. Meanwhile, her daughter is trying to get her attention ... A stunning novel. ... Read more

Amazon.com
If you like the darkly romantic thrillers of Daphne Du Maurier, (Rebecca, The House on the Strand, Jamaica Inn), where secrets from the past surface to tease and torture the protagonists, you should also enjoy Robert Goddard, a best-selling author in his native Britain. Goddard's latest takes the main character of his Into the Blue--idealistic failure Harry Barnett--through a story involving the son he never knew he had, a 33-year-old math genius now in a coma. Harry's stumbling investigations reveal sinister and even surreal overtones to his son's research, and Goddard's silky prose generates an unusual depth of excitement and sympathy. Other Goddard books in paperback include Closed Circle, Hand in Glove, In Pale Battalions, and Painting the Darkness.Book Description
Harry Barnett is shocked to learn that he has a son--David Venning, a brilliant mathematician, now languishing in hospital in a diabetic coma.  And this is only the first and smallest of the mysteries he is about to encounter.

David's condition is attributed to an accident or suicide attempt.  But Harry discovers that his mathematical notebooks are missing from the hotel room where he was found and two other scientists employed by the same American forecasting institute have died in suspicious circumstances.  Driven on by the slim hope of saving the son he never knew he had, Harry goes in search of the truth and finds himself entangled in several different kinds of conspiracy--none of which he ought to stand the slightest chance of defeating.

Harry Barnett was the flawed hero of Robert Goddard's earlier novel, the award-winning Into the Blue.  But nothing in that experience prepared him--or the reader--for the baffling conundrums and heart-stopping suspense of Out of the Sun ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

WOULD EINSTEIN & OPPENHEIMER DO IT AGAIN??
I first met Goddards character Harry Barnett in the novel Into the Blue.He was a likable character, prone to misfortune and possessing a penchant for lifting a few "pints" at the local pub.

In Out of the Sun Harry discovers he has a 33 year old son, a math genius who has fallen into a insulin overdose induced coma. When it is discovered that all of his son's mathematical notes are missing, and that several other individuals who had been working on a project with him for a company known as Globescope have also been felled by fatal "accidents", Harry embarks on a dangerous campaign to save the son he never knew he had.

The plot of this novel is compelling, with lots continent hopping adventures and enough twists turns to fill a package of fusilli pasta. All of these keep the reader interested, however the mathematical "hyperdimensions" mumbo-jumbo and ultimate explanation for the murders was disappointing. (Perhaps "genius" is not what it's cracked up to be).

This is not the best of Goddards offerings, but his average offering is often a lot better than other writers best.

Another twisty tale by Robert Goddard
Harry Barnett, the anti-hero in this novel, leads a dismal life as part-time attendant at the Mitre Bridge Service Station in London. One day he gets a telephone call from the National Neurological Hospital informing him that his son David John Venning is lying in a deep coma in room E318. To this day Harry has lived a presumably childless life and this piece of news comes as a great surprise.
Harry decides to go and visit this new son of his, and in room E318 he finds a comatose thirty-four-year old man. Glancing at the clipboard hanging on the bed, he acknowledges the fact that David John Venning was born on May 10th 1961. Could he be the result of Harry's long forgotten fling with Iris Venning in July 1960? Who placed the call at the Mitre Bridge Service Station knowing that Harry is David's father? Iris? Why is David in a deep coma resulting of an overdose of insulin? Did he try to commit suicide?
A twisty and breathtaking adventure is about to start for Harry on his long search for the answers to all these questions.

Many engaging, humorous, and dangerous turns
"Out of the Sun" (1996) is the second in what amounts to a trilogy by British author Robert Goddard, starting with the excellent "Into the Blue" (1990) and ending with "Never Go Back" (2006), all revolving around Harry Barnett, a likeable regular guy, who loves his pints, and has had less than success with work and business ventures.

As one young American poet put it, the shining sun sees most of us every day on this turning globe. Sees us until the day we are out of the sun, gone, and seen no more. A mysterious phone call informs Harry that his thirty-three-year-old son David is as good as dead, being hospitalized in a severe coma and on life support.

Harry never knew he had a son, but thinking back, he well and fondly remembers how it happened. Son David, a brilliant PhD mathematician interested in higher mathematical dimensions, belongs to a group of scientists trying to predict the full spectrum of challenges the world will be facing in 50 years.

The group's employer, called Globescope, has clients who pay highly to identify these future challenges so they can meet them profitably. Globescope sees the group's predictions to be quite dire. Believing that customers should hear only good news, the employer refuses to pass on the results and fires David's group.

When the fired group seeks to publish their work independently, group members keep turning up dead under mysterious circumstances -- or, in Harry's son David's case, comatose.

To protect the rest of the group, Harry is trying to find out who is responsible. He also hopes to find a doctor who can cure David. Harry's dangerous quest takes him from England to Copenhagen, to New York, Chicago, Dallas, Washington D.C., and elsewhere, and has him playing several roles. The perilous telling has considerable charm,humor, romance, and luck, with a surprise ending.

If I may repeat, we in the States are now indeed fortunate to have easy access to Goddard's books.

Mathematical puzzle.
Harry Barnett, a bit of a down and outer,is shocked on two counts.The first is to discover that he has a son from a brief fling, many years ago and secondly to be told that his son, David, is lying in a diabetic coma. David is a brilliant mathematician, employed by a rather secretive forecasting institute who previously employed several other scientists who died in mysterious circumstances.It's a good, imaginative plot and, given that I'm mathematically challenged, one that I had to force myself to understand. Poor Harry is a bit of a sad sack so things don't magically solve themselves for him as for other literary heros, but it's a story which will hold your attention until the end.

Better than "Into the Blue"
A well written, entertaining and truly original story. I read Goddard's "Into the blue" before, but liked this book much better. Worth reading!! ... Read more

Book Description
An outstanding short study of Lewis Carroll by the famed English poet. Written with rare grace and affection it is a gem of English prose writing.

THIS TITLE IS CITED AND RECOMMENDED BY:Books for College Libraries; Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature; Catalogue of the Lamont Library, Harvard College. ... Read more

Book Description
'Lewis Carroll was not the tragic deviant all previous biographers have assumed him to be. He was not in love with Alice Liddell or obsessed with little girls...The objects of his intense sexual desire were women, full-blooded, 'tall and lithe'. His one testament of passion is of erotic physical consummation with a mature and powerful woman. In his most private writings, he identified himself with the sin of David, which was not masturbation, or unruly fantasy, but adultery.....David's Psalm of keening repentance, 'make me a clean heart oh God', was Dodgson's most frequently-invoked prayer...'

This is the central argument that has made this new biography of Lewis Carroll both controversial and enthralling.

It uses new research to show that the long-standing image of Lewis Carroll (the pen-name of the author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson): his exclusively child-centred and unworldly life, his legendary obsession with Alice Liddell, and his supposedly unnatural sexuality, are in fact nothing more than myths.

With precision and analysis the book traces the development of this false persona and demonstrates how generations of biographers have helped to create fictions about Lewis Carroll's life, rather than bring the documentary facts before the public.The dismantling of the myth, and the new image that is put in its place are inevitably controversial.Not everyone will be able to accept its conclusions, but the amount of new original research it contains means it is an immensely significant book, and one that anyone who has any interest in Lewis Carroll and his work, probably ought to have read.

With its careful analysis, and its Gothic tale of cut pages, death bed confessions and hidden secrets, it is both an important scholastic work, and a book for anyone who enjoys an historical detective story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Great for Carroll fans to round out their views of the man
This important and detailed study of the new data about Charles Dodson and his alter ego Lewis Carroll shows that much that has been assumed about the man and his private life is as much a fantasy as the Alice's books. Relevant and adequate evidence from the letters, diary, and contemporary writings, now shows that Lewis Carroll was pretty much a normal, healthy adult person with a normal health social and private life. True, Dodson did have an affection for little girls, especially a little girl named Alice Pleasance Liddell (rhymes with little), but he also liked boys and men and photographed many of them. And in his later years he loved women, many, many adult women, perhaps, as Leach pointed out, too many. Although Karoline Leach, well-loved and well known British actress, appears to contradict the view of Carroll expressed by Cohen in Cohen's book which has now become the (gold) standard biography of Carroll, both are probably correct. At Oxford and in his early years, Carroll concerned himself more with children and later in London and at the beach he concerned himself with adult women. At both times in his life, Mrs. Grundy objected. Yet, Carroll was clear in his own conscience and nowhere is there the slightest piece of evidence that he did anything wrong by modern cultural standards. Oh yes, one of the main things I enjoyed about Leach's book, is the clear presentation of what it was like at Oxford during the time that Carroll was a student there. The boys with noble titles wore gold tassels and dined at the high table. Commoners worn black tassels and dined in the commons. No one could matriculate at Oxford unless they signed off on the 39 principles of the Church of England and therefore only those who were adherent to the state religion had a go at an Oxford degree. Also interesting is the amount of wealth controlled by the clergy and the penchant they had for distributing two-thirds of the income from the vast estates held by the church to (who else?) themselves. The nepotism within the church is too appalling to discuss. For good reasons, America's founders decided on strict separation of church and state.

see Tryst!!
If you enjoyed this author's writings, and you live in New York, I URGE you to buy tickets to TRYST, now playing at the Promedade Theatre. She has composed a brilliant, lyrical, bitter, honest, and ultimately surprising bit of period drama. The story is masterfully directed and acted by it's two-person cast, but the real star is the writing. It felt strange to applaude the actors alone, as I wanted to contratulate the play-write! I thought I had it all figured out by the end of act one, only to find myself on the edge of my seat all through act two as the characters unravel. See her play, Tryst, at the Promenade Theatre. It is not to be missed!

flawed but still groundbreaking
This book fundamentally changes the way we will all think about Carroll in the future. It's flawed - the biggest failure being its attempt to suggest an alternate explanation for eventswhen leaving the questions unanswered would have been better.But even so it is powerful, cogent and flawlessly argued. It examines Carroll's entire biographical history and shows how,the biographers themselves have built on each other's mistakes and fantasies to create an almost entirely bogus image.The story is hugely entertaining and a terrible indictment of biogaphers everywhere!

Read it. If you love Carroll, Alice, history or biography, read it and prepare to be amused, amazed and informed

Truth uncovered, Mystery revealed
This book, unlike it's predecessors, brought forth hidden facts, uprooted misconceptions, defied the myth and drew an intricate and real image of the man behind the stories. Conspiracy and cover-up spanning over a century is now being discovered. Analyzing human behavior and social realities in addition to the past ignored material has lead Karoline Leach to "A New Understanding of Lewis Carroll".
This book challenges every former biographer who chose to follow legend and whim rather than to search for the truth of this infinitely wronged man. Questions of genius, morals, emotional stability, and sexuality are raised, as in all the others. This time, unlike the others, these questions are finally conquered. We have reached a revelation about an icon. The man behind the stories created from his mind and the stories created for his mind has once again emerged from the darkness. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lewis Carroll.

The defense rests.
I was given this book as a gift by a friend who knew that I was a large fan of Carroll. I read it with some trepidation, as I generally dislike Carroll scholarship. I am interested in his writing, and not his supposed or real relationships with little girls.

I was both reassured and interested when I discovered that Leach had set out precisely to debunk the notion of Carroll as either an eunuch or a pedophile. Her thesis is that the image of Carroll as obsessed with little girls was a Victorian attempt to whitewash his image gone sadly wrong with the rise of Freudian psychology. She draws a sexually mature Carroll, primarily involved with adult women. Most specifically, she theorizes a relationship between Carroll and Lorina Liddell, the mother of Alice.

While the book raises reasonable doubts about the theory of Alice Liddell as the Dreamchild, her evidence is as circumstantial as the opinions that she is attempting to debunk. It is and remains an interesting thesis, but she offers no real proof. Perhaps the main flaw of the book is that it is both too long and too short. It is too long to make just the point debunking the "Carroll as pedophile" myth; she presents her evidence quickly, and then repeats it for the rest of the book. It is too short to be a full or real biography of Carroll; she settles for criticizing the more mainstream biographers. I think that the readers would rather have seen either more or less material.

Potential buyers should be aware that if you are not already familiar with the Dodgson/Carroll biographical material then this book will not be clear or meaningful. Recommended for Alice/Carroll fans and scholars. ... Read more

Book Description
Charles L. Dodgson's publications on political subjects offer a very different view of Lewis Carroll, the man made famous by his “Alice” books. Better known for whimsical and nonsense writings, Dodgson wrote on the entire spectrum of voting theory, applying it to issues of local governance at Christ Church College in the University of Oxford, where he was employed all of his professional life—mainly as Mathematical Lecturer—and to issues of national politics. Yet this work remained largely unknown at his death.

This third volume of a planned series of six is a comprehensive account of Dodgson's publications on voting theory. Francine F. Abeles offers a fresh perspective on his contributions to what was then an embryonic school of politics. Drawing together all of Dodgson's pamphlets, letters, diary entries, and other pieces on this subject, Abeles traces the development of Dodgson's theory of voting from its beginnings in his participation in the academic affairs of the University of Oxford to his attempts to influence the outcome of bills before the British Parliament affecting the extension of the voting franchise and the redistribution of seats in the House of Commons.

Collected together for the first time, these writings deal with such topics as ranking methods, voting anomalies, sophisticated voting, proportional representation, apportionment, and applications of game theory to voting strategies. Dodgson's commitment to objectivity and fairness also led him to employ his methods in such sports applications as horse racing wagers and tennis tournament schedules.

Each chapter of this book is preceded by an introductory essay providing background information and analyses to assist both the general reader and the specialist. The Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll will be of interest to students and scholars of Carroll's work, to political scientists, historians, and mathematicians, and to readers concerned with Victorian studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

For the REALLY obsessive fan
You have to be VERY deeply into Lewis Carroll to even consider this book. It has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Alice or any of the other classic characters.

What we do have is a very well collected, orderly, nicely edited and annotated collection of Carroll's political pamphlets, items which are otherwise almost impossible to read otherwise. But you really have to be interested in this stuff to appreciate it, otherwise why bother at all?

One thing I do really appreciate, and this probably accounts for the price, is the quality of the imprint. The print quality is very clear and easy on the eyes, something that is becoming a lost art. ... Read more

Book Description
A lively and insightful biography of the Victorian mathematician and philosopher William Clifford and his wife Lucy, the influential journalist and novelist. With a personal reflection on Clifford's contribution to mathematics by Sir Roger Penrose. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Inspiring Curiosity
I immensely enjoyed reading "Such Silver Currents". It flows at just the right pace, and gathers interest, intrigue, and admiration in the reading. It inspires a curiosity about the era that made me turn frequently to a biographical dictionary for supplementary detail. The author makes her
personalities come alive; her story creates a vivid picture of the interplay of motivations of her subjects. Refreshed by reading about "behind the scenes" people instead of the "big names", I found an underlying theme of the validity of all of our lives, no matter how unknown, how forgotten in the broad sweeps of human history. ... Read more