Kepler, a novel

by John Banville

Paperback, 1983

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Publication

D.R. Godine (1983), Edition: 1st U.S. ed, 192 pages

Description

Johannes Kepler, born in 1571 in south Germany, was one of the world's greatest mathematicians and astronomers. The author of this book uses this history as a background to his novel, writing a work of historical fiction that is rooted in poverty, squalor and the tyrannical power of emperors.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Oregonreader

When I think about the great scientific minds of the distant past, I always imagine them constantly occupied with their lofty pursuits and all their needs somehow provided. Banville puts the reader right inside Kepler's mind which is so often caught up in the petty details of life, his unhappy

marriage, deaths of his children, the constant search for a patron and money. But then occasionally you get a glimpse of his genius which leads him to look again at what was known about geometry and astronomy at the time. His Kepler sees the physical world and the people around him as alien and usually hostile. When he stops to take a look around, he is always an observer, never a participant. He lacks the most basic social skills. Yet there are those who see his genius and give him the time to do his work. Banville is an amazing writer and gives a good sense of life at the turn of the seventeenth century.

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LibraryThing member antao

What I can say? It was my first Banville book and it won't be the last. We experience Kepler's Angst...

LibraryThing member jklugman

Banville continues his exploration of brilliant scientists whose fleeting moments of rational lucidity allow them to pierce the cages made of religious identities and superstitions that they inhabit. This novel is not as successful as its predecessor, Doctor Copernicus, as the cultural impact of

Kepler's discoveries are still rather opaque to me. Clearly the Copernican revolution had tremendous implications for humans who thought they were at the center of the universe, but I am not sure why Kepler's insights (e.g. planetary orbits are elliptical) would matter a whole lot to spiritual and political authorities. Judging from this novel, elites just saw astronomers as playthings, kind of like how Jeffrey Epstein saw the superstar academics he collected. Kepler the character is not terribly interesting--he is rather passive as his life is buffeted by the political and religious strife of Renaissance-era Germany.

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