Measuring the World: A Novel

Daniel Kehlmann

Mar 2009 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

Measuring the World marks the debut of a glorious new talent on the international scene. Young Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann’s brilliant comic novel revolves around the meeting of two colossal geniuses of the Enlightenment.
     Late in the eighteenth century, two young Germans set out to measure the world. One of them, the aristocratic naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, negotiates jungles, voyages down the Orinoco River, tastes poisons, climbs the highest mountain known to man, counts head lice, and explores and measures every cave and hill he comes across. The other, the reclusive and barely socialized mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, can prove that space is curved without leaving his home. Terrifyingly famous and wildly eccentric, these two polar opposites finally meet in Berlin in 1828, and are immediately embroiled in the turmoil of the post-Napolean world.

Ratings and reviews

A compelling and beautifully-written novel juxtaposing the lives of two extraordinary men: mathematician Carl Gauss and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Kehlmann's dreamy, dexterous evocation of their inner and outer journeys is a tour de force of contrasts: the "reclusive and barely-socialized" Gauss is obsessed with women, the world-traveling Humboldt is utterly uninterested. Gauss' world is theoretical, Humboldt is obsessed with experiencing geographical and physical extremes. Their lives are depicted with an attention to the disquieting details of eighteenth-century existence, reminiscent of Neal Stephenson's equally brilliant The Baroque Cycle, though the big difference between Stephenson's huge novels and the spare 250+ in this one also points to one of Kehlmann's gifts as a writer: saying much in few words. Like Stephenson, Kehlmann can be hilarious (von Humboldt's erstwhile collaborator Bonstand is a constant source of comedy) but he can also be poignant, philosophical, and mystical. A brilliant book. I hope more of this author's work is translated into English soon.

I was really into it the first half of the book, then I fell off. Good adventure novel. Reminds me of King Solomons Mines at times.

Not done yet, I'm enjoying the writing, it is keeping me very interested. The characters are well developed and the plot is not predictable at all.

About the author

Daniel Kehlmann was born in 1975 in Munich, the son of a director and an actress. He attended a Jesuit college in Vienna, traveled widely, and has won several awards for previous novels and short stories, most recently the 2005 Candide Award. His works have been translated into more than twenty languages, and Measuring the World became an instant best seller in several European countries.  He lives in Vienna.