Measuring the World: A Novel

As others have pointed out, this is an interleaved biography of Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt, two of the greatest German men of science at the start of the nineteenth century. Despite being contemporaries, they are as different as could be in background and methods: Gauss, from a modest family, is a stay-at-home thinker; the aristocratic Humboldt finds fame as a world explorer. For two-thirds of the book, Kehlmann tells their separate stories in alternating chapters. He is particularly entertaining when describing the intrepid but rather naif Humboldt, who climbs Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador, and tastes curare to prove it is not poisonous when ingested, but is shocked to discover than women have body hair just like men. Kehlmann narrates all this in a deadpan style that is often very funny. He has a harder time conveying the importance of Gauss to mathematics; unlike other recent novels about mathematicians such as David Leavitt's  THE INDIAN CLERK  or Yoko Ogawa's  THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR , he avoids anything technical, making it difficult to show the man as much more than a misanthrope at first. More comes through towards the end when Gauss turns his mind to more practical matters such as chemistry, physics, and technology.Indeed, this seems to be the main thrust of the book, that Gauss becomes more practical whereas Humboldt, who started as the supreme man of action, ends virtually emasculated by his own fame. But since there is really very little to connect the two men other than the author's demonstration of their differences, the final sections of the book, when the two men finally meet, seem narratively contrived and tail off into confusion. In some respects the novel is reminiscent of  ARTHUR AND GEORGE  by Julian Barnes, which also starts with two separate historical characters, and also ends in deliberate anticlimax. But whereas Barnes focuses on a real encounter that changed the lives of both protagonists, Kehlmann's great scientists pass like ships in the night. All the same, Humboldt's realization as he is returning from an exhausting and fruitless tour of Russia is apropos and poignant: "But as the first suburbs of Berlin flew past and Humboldt imagined Gauss at that very moment staring through his telescope at heavenly bodies, whose paths he could sum up in simple formulas, all of a sudden he could no longer have said which of them had traveled afar and which of them had always stayed at home."Over and above the story of these two men, the book offers a fascinating glimpse of the intellectual climate in Germany in the early 1800s, an interesting pendant to the more delicate portrait of early German romanticism painted by Penelope Fitzgerald in  THE BLUE FLOWER , her novel about the poet Novalis.

I am not one to review books. I read this because of a book club I am in. I found it a bit hard to follow at first but I found myself smiling and chuckling along the way. I love historical fiction, and this was a nice read to learn about two world renown scientists of their time. On a side note, I live in an area where the name Humbolt is the name of several places. I never knew about the history behind the name and the explorer that was so revered for his work.

. . . are both great mathematicians of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries in Germany. Humboldt journeys across Europe, crosses the Atlantic to South America and maps the Orinoco River, measuring every geographical feature, and even social features, that can be measured or counted, making huge volumes of notes. Gauss measures the universe from his desk, but does depart to do his own measurements across Prussia and Russia. But all the math is wrapped most humorously in the astounding events and comic relationships, the contrasts and ironies surrounding their separate tales. There was a political tragedy befalling persons close to them, not to mention diseases and the stresses involved with travel and adventure in the world of 1800. Kehlmann’s sense of humor intertwines with his keen appreciation for hardship and mathematical genius throughout the narrative.

This book wants to be a historical novel, a novel based on biography of two of the greatest minds who lived in 19th century German lands. It is neither. It is a boring and shallow narrative with tidbits of biographical information. Having read Alexander von Humboldt's and Gauss' works in original and in translation, I can say with certainty that this book is not written to celebrate their accomplishments. Rather, it seems to mock their genius for the purpose of entertaining the reader. That's shallow at best.If you are interested in Alexander von Humboldt's work and travels, read "Personal Narrative", "Island of Cuba", "Cosmos" or excellent accounts of his contribution: "Humboldt's Cosmos" and "The Humboldt Current". There is an excellent paperback edition of "Alexander von Humboldt - a metabiography" by Nicolaas A. Rupke which is an easy read. Same goes for Gauss. Read his works, instead of this bastardized "biography" which presents both men as if they were idiots who stumbled through life for the lack of anything better to do.Possibly the best source is yet to be translated to English: "Aus meinem Leben" published by C.H.Beck Verlag. This book consists of Humboldt's own letters, notes and remarks, commented and collected by Kurt Biermann. I wish Kehlmann had the chance to read this book before unleashing his "Measuring of the World."If I could give a negative number of stars, I would. Thankfully, there are other sources which are based on factual information, have depth (imagine that) and are a joy to read.Update: After listening to this book on audio, I am now convinced that it is a complete waste of time. Minus five stars. Maybe the author will enlighten us one day on his sources and inspiration for this book.

Measuring the World combines biographic material on Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Frederick Gauss in a novel of their lives and interaction together. It is translated from the original German which perhaps adds to the confused and jumbled story line and time frames. Humboldt apparently spends several years in exploring the Orinoco/Amazon basin of South America in the novel but really completed his work there in less than six months. Gauss goes from being a young mathematical and scientific genius to a plodding bureaucrat within possibly a few years in the book whereas the development covered most of his adult life. I found Measuring The World to be a fantasy of the lives of these two great men and can only wish that the author had stayed closer to the facts in constructing his historical fiction.

The life stories of two late-18th-century, eccentric-genius scientists dramatised as a novel: Alexander von Humboldt, explorer, and Carl Friedrich Gauss, astronomer and mathematician.At first I didn’t take to it. Though plainly witty and interesting, it was flowing past me, just one thing after another. But then I tried reading it aloud and became much more involved with the characters and entertained by the wry, throwaway humour. So all in all, great fun and fascinating, lots to enjoy, and with something to say about the human condition.Three minor quibbles. The lack of speech quotation marks. The ‘he’s and ‘him’s I had to pause to attribute. And the first chapter, which would have worked much better coming in its chronological order in the narrative. My advice is start with chapter 2 and read chapter 1 after the one called ‘The Capital’.

What is there still left to measure in the world today? Precious little, one might argue, except for things of infinitisemal size. How different the world must have seemed in the early 18th century, when the principles of Enlightenment were at their peak, and large parts of the map of the world were still black. European scientist had an almost unbound belief in the possibilities of scientific research, and there was plenty to research!'Measuring the world' captures this era in a beautiful manner, by contrasting two of its giants: the explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) and the mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855). In many ways, two people couldn't be further apart: Gauss was a child prodigy of humble birth (his father wanted him to become a mason as he himself was), Humboldt the younger of two sons in a prominent Pomeranian family (his father was a major in the Prussian army). Gauss was by all accounts a difficult man to live with: a perfectionist, having difficulties establishing relations with other people (including his own children), impatient and restless. By contrast, Humboldt was ever sociable and friendly, the epitome of the gentleman-explorer, used to moving in the highest circles. Humboldt traversed the globe, Gauss explored the world (the universe rather) sitting behind his desk...And yet, in a bizarre way, as Kehlmann demonstrates in this splendid book, both men (or rather: his fictionalized versions of them) are as different sides of the same coin, and are ultimately 'mere men', as we all are. Ambitious and confident as they may be when young and in the prime of their lives, and there hardly seemed to be limits to what they could do and achieve, as they grow older (and more and more lonely) they are confronted with the same ruminations, doubts and regrets we probably all are: did I make a difference? Have I done right by my children? Should I have been more caring towards my wife?You've probably guessed by now that I enjoyed this book a lot. It's insightful, full of (dry) humour and irony, and utterly charming. Splendid!

This is a book about "parallel lives": a man who never went very far from home and a man who travelled far and wide. Both made astonishing discoveries, that helped shape our world and views.This book also deals with those very exciting times wheh a man of means could travel the world and discover for the Europeans those corners of Earth that were still hidden. That was Humboldt's case. Appart from that, he was gifted with an iron determination and faith in himself.On the other hand, stands a Genious, Gauss, prince of Matemathicians, who turned Maths upside down when hardly twenty, and went on working on other projects: probability, magnetism, languaje, etc.The author makes their scientific enterprises the landscape for their developement as persons, a setting in which we can understand them better as men, with their whims, wishes, prejudices, miseries, intuition, inspiration, genius...Their society was very different from ours: stamental, rigid, surveiled... many things we take for granted, like freedom of speech, independent pursuits, free research were not casual, were sometimes only tolerated.This book is a good primer to historical novels, and a good kit-kat for those scientists and interested in science.Good buy.

A wonderful novel of mans powers of exploration. Beautifully contrasting the two lead characters of the widely travelling explorer recording so much of the works that he sees with the stay at home who explores the structure of the universe from his home. But it is so much more - a tale of aging, of loneliness, of abandonment.I also heatily recommend Kehlmsns recent novel Tyll

I find that with many books in which their are separate plot lines running in parallel I tend to find one more interesting than the other so that I am disappointed when at chapter end the author switches back to the less engaging one and I am left impatient to get back to the first. For the majority of this novel that is the structure but the excellence of Mr.Kehlmann's work is such that I became totally involved in both character's stories and there was a pang of regret whenever he chose to switch themes. When the principals are intereacting there is an edgy, almost surreal, 'odd couple' relationship between them which is equally fascinating. Added to all this is a fair smattering of layman's level mathematics and natural history to keep you thinking and it all adds up to a totally absorbing portrait of two scientists during the Enlightenment.Highly recommended.