Scan barcode
katykelly's review against another edition
3.0
A little disappointing, reading this after Longitude and Galileo's Daughter. Possibly reading it as an audiobook didn't help, but I found much of this account of the Copernican revolution rather dry and too full of names to be very interesting.
The middle part, written as a play with the major scenes played out by the characters was great, and saved this for me, put it in context and added depth to the names. But either side (especially the first third) was hard to follow.
The whole work covers the time in which Copernicus lived, his history, how he came to write the seminal On The Revolutions, which paved the way for the new way of seeing the universe as helio- rather than Earth-centric. And then the aftermath. A pretty amazing subject really.
A shame then, for me, that I didn't find it as easy to read (and listen to) as I'd expected. Some great historical background to modern scientific thinking, I did learn a thing of two, but not as readable as Sobel's other works.
The middle part, written as a play with the major scenes played out by the characters was great, and saved this for me, put it in context and added depth to the names. But either side (especially the first third) was hard to follow.
The whole work covers the time in which Copernicus lived, his history, how he came to write the seminal On The Revolutions, which paved the way for the new way of seeing the universe as helio- rather than Earth-centric. And then the aftermath. A pretty amazing subject really.
A shame then, for me, that I didn't find it as easy to read (and listen to) as I'd expected. Some great historical background to modern scientific thinking, I did learn a thing of two, but not as readable as Sobel's other works.
readandlisten's review against another edition
3.0
A solid read but didn't catch my interest as much as D. Sobel's previous works - all of which were wonderful.
billmc's review against another edition
2.0
I have loved Sobel's books and looked forward to this one. Unfortunately, this one was not as satisfying. It is two books in one: a history of Copernicus and a play about the steps leading to the publication of his theory. The history portion was very informative and readable. The drama portion suffered because Sobel's dialogue is flat and rather boring. I would rate the book closer to a 3 if it weren't for the play portion.
bupdaddy's review against another edition
4.0
Well-written, and interesting, but there were some major challenges in writing Copernicus' biography:
He had his famous insight early in his life. Once you've written about the stunning imagination and intelligence it took to realize that the earth is another one of those things called 'wanderers' or 'planets' (or its converse, that they are bodies like the earth), that the earth is spinning at 1000 miles per hour and moving around the sun at some magnitude of speed higher than that, but we can't feel it against all common sense, and that the sun is the thing at the center of the system, and done that in chapter two, what do you do for the rest of the book?
Sobel decided to fill in a lot with a thirty scene play about how things might have played out when a mathematician named Rheticus showed up to learn from Copernicus and probably became the one to convince him to publish his theory/model, which only happened as he was dying. It's a pretty jarring change, but I guess did a good job of communicating that how all this stuff played out is speculation.
After that, we learn about his legacy, and the legacy of the book. All very interesting stuff, so I give it four stars, but nevertheless came off at times as padding (fascinating padding) because we don't know enough about his life to make a book-length biography.
There isn't a whole lot of original source material.
Copernicus went out of his way to not make waves. He made one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of all time, but didn't publish so as to not offend his employer, the church.
He probably escaped more unwanted attention by living at the same time as Martin Luther, who was an even bigger threat to the establishment.
He had his famous insight early in his life. Once you've written about the stunning imagination and intelligence it took to realize that the earth is another one of those things called 'wanderers' or 'planets' (or its converse, that they are bodies like the earth), that the earth is spinning at 1000 miles per hour and moving around the sun at some magnitude of speed higher than that, but we can't feel it against all common sense, and that the sun is the thing at the center of the system, and done that in chapter two, what do you do for the rest of the book?
Sobel decided to fill in a lot with a thirty scene play about how things might have played out when a mathematician named Rheticus showed up to learn from Copernicus and probably became the one to convince him to publish his theory/model, which only happened as he was dying. It's a pretty jarring change, but I guess did a good job of communicating that how all this stuff played out is speculation.
After that, we learn about his legacy, and the legacy of the book. All very interesting stuff, so I give it four stars, but nevertheless came off at times as padding (fascinating padding) because we don't know enough about his life to make a book-length biography.
wescovington's review against another edition
5.0
Dava Sobel, author of [b:Longitude|4806|Longitude The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time|Dava Sobel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316636792s/4806.jpg|1755348] and [b:Galileo's Daughter|18646|Galileo's Daughter A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love |Dava Sobel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309287769s/18646.jpg|2351782], has taken on another important figure from the Scientific Revolution, Nicholas Copernicus. Sobel's book is unique in that the most dramatic part of Copernicus' life, the writing and publishing of his work "On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres" which laid out his heliocentric theory of the solar system, is presented as a drama. It is a daring choice and it is one that works well.
Copernicus was born in Poland, educated in Italy, and worked nearly all of his life in a part of Poland that would become a part of Prussia. Officially, he was a church canon, an administrative official for a Catholic diocese. However, Copernicus was skilled in many fields. Besides astronomy, Copernicus wrote on economics, medicine, and poetry. But, astronomy was what made him famous. Even if he never knew he was going to be famous because of it.
Copernicus formulated his heliocentric fairly early in his life, but he was afraid to publish his findings. Part of this was that the idea was considered so revolutionary, that he would be subjected to ridicule. However, he spent countless nights over decades making meticulous observations. He crunched numbers. There was no doubt. The earth was moving. The sun wasn't. Nothing else made sense.
When Copernicus was in his sixties, a young German mathematician named Rheticus paid him a visit. Somehow, Rheticus was able to persuade Copernicus to publish his life work. (A bishop in a neighboring diocese had encouraged Copernicus to do the same also.)
Just how did Rheticus persuade Copernicus? We don't know for sure, but Sobel speculates in the books "interplay." For about 40 pages, Sobel inserts a brief two act play involving Copernicus, Rheticus, two local bishops, Copernicus' housekeeper (and mistress), and a bishop's young assistant (who has a homosexual dalliance with Rheticus).
While the play may seem somewhat hokey, it actually works well. The historical figures seem more alive. Sobel may create dialog, but she is not creating ideas. Copernicus indeed did have an affair with his housekeeper. Rheticus would later be run out of teaching job for improper conduct toward a young male student. Copernicus had to be talked into publishing his ideas. Rheticus had the youthful energy (and publishing connections) to publish Copernicus' work.
Copernicus suffered a debilitating stroke shortly after Rheticus left him. Legend has it that a paralyzed Copernicus received a copy of the book shortly before he died. In the end, the world benefited from the bold ideas of Copernicus and the persuasion of a young German mathematician named Rheticus.
Copernicus was born in Poland, educated in Italy, and worked nearly all of his life in a part of Poland that would become a part of Prussia. Officially, he was a church canon, an administrative official for a Catholic diocese. However, Copernicus was skilled in many fields. Besides astronomy, Copernicus wrote on economics, medicine, and poetry. But, astronomy was what made him famous. Even if he never knew he was going to be famous because of it.
Copernicus formulated his heliocentric fairly early in his life, but he was afraid to publish his findings. Part of this was that the idea was considered so revolutionary, that he would be subjected to ridicule. However, he spent countless nights over decades making meticulous observations. He crunched numbers. There was no doubt. The earth was moving. The sun wasn't. Nothing else made sense.
When Copernicus was in his sixties, a young German mathematician named Rheticus paid him a visit. Somehow, Rheticus was able to persuade Copernicus to publish his life work. (A bishop in a neighboring diocese had encouraged Copernicus to do the same also.)
Just how did Rheticus persuade Copernicus? We don't know for sure, but Sobel speculates in the books "interplay." For about 40 pages, Sobel inserts a brief two act play involving Copernicus, Rheticus, two local bishops, Copernicus' housekeeper (and mistress), and a bishop's young assistant (who has a homosexual dalliance with Rheticus).
While the play may seem somewhat hokey, it actually works well. The historical figures seem more alive. Sobel may create dialog, but she is not creating ideas. Copernicus indeed did have an affair with his housekeeper. Rheticus would later be run out of teaching job for improper conduct toward a young male student. Copernicus had to be talked into publishing his ideas. Rheticus had the youthful energy (and publishing connections) to publish Copernicus' work.
Copernicus suffered a debilitating stroke shortly after Rheticus left him. Legend has it that a paralyzed Copernicus received a copy of the book shortly before he died. In the end, the world benefited from the bold ideas of Copernicus and the persuasion of a young German mathematician named Rheticus.
musicdeepdive's review against another edition
1.5
H-A-T-E-D the middle third, a straight-up multi-act play (with such inspiring dialogue as "Whee!", spoken as a main character is spun 'round really fast - not a sentence wasted, truly) cast in the middle of a traditional nonfiction narrative without any semblance of decent transition. The rest might have made a fine 100-page pamphlet on Copernicus, I suppose.
angelreadsthings's review against another edition
2.0
2 3/4 Stars. This book would probably be exceptionally interesting to someone with more of a historical interest in Copernicus; however, as a student who read this book as a co-requisite to performing a dramatic reading of her play, I found the book to be excessively broad. Sobel provided too much unnecessary history, at times not even about Copernicus, instead of focusing on the historical development of the publishing of and reaction to Copernicus' theory. Each chapter felt like a flood of information that I struggled to connect, and by the end, I felt that the only completely enjoyable portion of the book was the play itself.
atlantic_reader_wannabe's review against another edition
5.0
Before reading this, I never really thought about how society came to heliocentricity. I hardly knew anything about Copernicus. After reading this book, I feel like I understand how heliocentricity works and how it came to be. Definitely worth reading!
oceanlistener's review against another edition
2.0
This book just didn't hold me the way Sobel's other biographies have. It was interesting, but other than the play in the middle it felt pretty dry. The play was more interesting, but felt less informative- a trade-off I didn't feel reading Longitude or Galileo's Daughter. I'd recommend any of her other books, but probably not this one.