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In the spring of 1976, George Andrews of Pennsylvania State University visited the library at Trinity College, Cambridge, to examine the papers of the late G.N. Watson. Among these papers, Andrews discovered a sheaf of 138 pages in the handwriting of Srinivasa Ramanujan. This manuscript was soon designated, "Ramanujan's lost notebook." Its discovery has frequently been deemed the mathematical equivalent of finding Beethoven's tenth symphony.

The "lost notebook" contains considerable material on mock theta functions and so undoubtedly emanates from the last year of Ramanujan's life. It should be emphasized that the material on mock theta functions is perhaps Ramanujan's deepest work. Mathematicians are probably several decades away from a complete understanding of those functions. More than half of the material in the book is on q-series, including mock theta functions; the remaining part deals with theta function identities, modular equations, incomplete elliptic integrals of the first kind and other integrals of theta functions, Eisenstein series, particular values of theta functions, the Rogers-Ramanujan continued fraction, other q-continued fractions, other integrals, and parts of Hecke's theory of modular forms.

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Customer Reviews (6)

Does Princeton U Press have no shame
As a work of fiction this doesn't hold up---it's merely a badly written pastiche of earlier secret society novels. Dan Brown comes to mind. Now Dan Brown is by no means a literary stylist but he does have the formula for a page tuner. Here the author doesn't really have a decent plot.PythRev is just a disconnected collection of episodes with stock cardboard characters--padded with info from wikipedia about few math topics and a bit of classical history. The math is not developed to the point that would convey any of its depth. What I find most shocking is that a distinguished university press--Princeton--would publish such obviously clumsy, amateur junk(as in 'junk food for the mind'). The author is a mathematician. He should have stuck to abstract formal systems and left writing to the writers.

Not a mystery at all. A ghost/reincarnation story
Basically, as admitted by the author in the preface, the book is not a mystery, but a popularized account of the life of Pythagoras and the school/cult he founded. The only "mystery" is why anyone would care who is the reincarnated Pythagoras.

original and entertaining math-thriller
This is an original and entertaining math-thriller. Its strength is the care and detail that have gone into the historical elements, and into the threading of the various plot lines. It is a peculiar novel; it reads like an action thriller for teenage boys, but the main protagonist is an aging, and rather unsympathetic academic. And at it its heart, one has to suspend disbelief over two rather indigestible tenants: that the key figures would play along with the notion of reincarnation, and that the modern day Pythagorean sect wouldbe so powerful. But these are completely consistent with the Pythagorean theme, and the book displayed a remarkable coherency. I hesitated between rating it 4 or 5, but was convinced by the appendices, notes and bibliography. The author put a lot of effort into this book.If you like math-fiction, you will very likely enjoy this. I did.

Good introduction to Pythagorean philosophy
Every high school mathematics student thinks they know everything about Pythagoras, as soon as they master the formula for finding the hypotenuse of a right triangle if you know the two sides.Hardly any go on to learn that Pythagoras founded an important school of philosophy, one that has implications even to today's considerations of vexing questions in mathematics and science.

This fictionalized account of the search for a particular artifact that will reveal even more truths about the world is a fun way of absorbing what is actually known about Pythagoras, and what is suspected.

A literary jewel
Masterfully written gripping plot with unexpected ending.
Fully suspenseful all along.
Mathematically instructive even for the novice.
Philosophically challenging.
Technically well documented.
Historically substantiated.
Vividly depicting numerous colourful characters, old and recent times and obscure places.
Highly recommended.
A literary jewel.

... Read more

Product Description
Alfred Tarski, one of the greatest logicians of all time, is widely thought of as 'the man who defined truth'. His mathematical work on the concepts of truth and logical consequence are cornerstones of modern logic, influencing developments in philosophy, linguistics and computer science. Tarski was a charismatic teacher and zealous promoter of his view of logic as the foundation of all rational thought, a bon-vivant and a womanizer, who played the 'great man' to the hilt. Born in Warsaw in 1901 to Jewish parents, he changed his name and converted to Catholicism, but was never able to obtain a professorship in his home country. A fortuitous trip to the United States at the outbreak of war saved his life and turned his career around, even while it separated him from his family for years. By the war's end he was established as a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. There Tarski built an empire in logic and methodology that attracted students and distinguished researchers from all over the world. From the cafes of Warsaw and Vienna to the mountains and deserts of California, this first full length biography places Tarski in the social, intellectual and historical context of his times and presents a frank, vivid picture of a personally and professionally passionate man, interlaced with an account of his major scientific achievements. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

A "rigorous" biography that demonstrates that "...also very famous people can have their human defects."
John V. KaravitisI'm almost tempted not to bother writing a review of this biography, I think that a prior reviewer, Mark Robinson, did an admirable job of identifying the inherent contradiction that was the life of Alfred Tarski.Tarski was, as Leon Henkin stated at Tarski's memorial service in Berkeley, "proud, penetrating, persistent, powerful, passionate".Tarski pursued his chosen field of study, logic, with drive and focus, and he did the same with other aspects of his life:climbing mountains and chasing after female students.But reading through this exhaustingly detailed tome made me realize that Tarski was, for all his genius, a deeply flawed individual.John V. KaravitisI'm not sure if people with these character flaws are drawn to academia, or if academia makes people arrogant and out of touch with reality, or if it's a little bit of both.Tarski was a genius, and he took great care to make sure that his approach to the study of logic was full of rigor.Tarski took great pains to proselytize logic around the world, to nurture its growth and make sure that there would be "successors" who would continue his work.But on the other hand, he routinely cheated on his wife (his son Jan felt humiliated by this), typically with female graduate students for whose academic career he was responsible. Today, Tarski and UC Berkeley would have been sued for sexual harassment, and Tarski's career ended for such behavior. Tarski was also overbearing and callous in his dealings with people, especially with those closest to him.As John Corcoran noted:"He was like a Greek God...exasperating... and he was such a glory hound it was embarrassing."It's tough to reconcile these two contradictory aspects of the character of Tarski.Maybe, as has been proposed, when you're living in the "formal world" of logic, something has to "give" in the other areas of one's life.If that's the case, I John V. Karavitis pity Tarski, as I do Montague (who died under mysterious circumstances) and Godel (who died because he literally forgot to eat!).Overall this biography is very well detailed, as noted by the voluminous Notes and Bibliography sections.But it went into such great detail that one becomes bogged down, easily losing sight of the main themes of Tarski's life.The authors, a former student of Tarski's and his spouse, also include several chapters called "Interludes", in which they try to explain certain mathematical ideas that Tarski worked on.Admirable, but unless you have a background in mathematics or logic, almost impossible to follow.Overall, a decent effort, and yes, someone has put together "the definitive" biography of Tarski.But it could have been done better, with way fewer pages, and with an eye to giving us a clearer overall picture of this very complicated man.Quality over quantity, even when you're aiming for "rigor"!John V. Karavitis

The most interesting biography of a mathematician that I have ever read
This book demolishes absurd myths about mathematicians, that they are dull in personality, possess mechanistic minds and exhibit little in the manner of emotion. Alfred Tarski was one of the greatest mathematical minds of the twentieth century and in many ways he was also a demanding scoundrel. He openly had extra-marital affairs, even to the point where he would bring the women home to meet his wife Maria. She had to have been one of the most tolerant and understanding of souls. When Maria finally left him, it had as much to do with his domestic demands as to his sexual (mis)adventures.
Not only was Tarski fortunate in his choice of mate, he was also very lucky to have lived when he did. In the modern academic world, his constant sexual advances to his female students would have gotten him fired very quickly, which brings up another irony. In the middle of the twentieth century, the expression of homosexuality was grounds for termination and ridicule, the authors are very clear about the activities of some of the gay friends of Tarski. One was even robbed once and then murdered later as a consequence of being gay. Yet, Tarski was free to seduce females with impunity, as he made no secret of his actions. At the start of the twenty-first century, expressing homosexuality is accepted and any sexual activity between a professor and student is grounds for termination.
The authors have used an effective structure in creating this book. The passages containing the heavy mathematics have chapter headings called interludes and the biographical sections are given specific titles. This allows the reader with little experience in logic to avoid the heavy mental lifting.
Alfred Tarski was a genius and very lucky in many ways, most specifically in his choice of wife. He also lived at a time when sex with your students was at least a tolerated perk of being a professor. Arrogant, cranky, opinionated and adored, he cut a swath through the mathematical community that will keep him remembered as long as mathematics is practiced and studied. A blunt and accurate biography, this book depicts Tarski as thoroughly Polish, brilliant, an egomaniac, a lifelong drug user, tolerant of "alternative" lifestyles and as both a positive and negative role model. It is the most entertaining biography of a mathematician that I have ever read.

Mathematics & Life
Fabulous!Alfred Tarski was one of the two greatest mathematical logicians of the twentieth century. (The other was Kurt Gödel.)Solomon Feferman, a student of Tarki's in the early fifties and a friend for over twenty years throughout the rest of Tarski's life, is himself one of most outstanding logicians of our day. Anita Feferman, Solomon Feferman's wife, is the author of the tremendously exciting biography of the logician and bodyguard to Leon Trotsky, Jean van Heijenoort: "From Trotsky to Gödel".(I know it's difficult to believe that a logician could also have been Trotsky's bodyguard; her book must be read to be believed!)
Clearly, this Tarski biography is a labor of love. I completely agree with those reviewers who have explained in detail why this book reads in places more like an exciting novel than a mere biography. What I found very impressive was the beautiful, delicate balance of the book between Tarski's mathematical accomplishments on the one hand and the daily features of his personal life on the other. He was not just a mathematician but rather a force of nature, a tornado, who swept everyone around him in his wake. Students, other mathematicians, university administrators, friends, colleagues, and especially women were all pulled into his mathematical and personal whirlwind.
No praise would be excessive for this outstanding book!

Intriguing story - far beyond my expectation!
To be honest, I started reading this book with some suspicion.In the first place, I was neither a fan of Tarski nor of S.Feferman.Though I did regard Tarski as one of the intellectual giants in the 20th century, I still frowned at the book's opening description of him as one of the "greatest" logicians of all time - on a par with my own hero Godel.My feeling towards S.Feferman was similarly ambivalent.In spite of his substantial contribution as the editor-in-chief of Godel's Collected Works and the universal praise he has received for that project, its end-result (the project was abandoned for running out of supports in 2005) is seriously lacking.For one thing, after almost 30 years' work the huge bulk of Godel's Nachlass in Gabelsberger (an almost extinct German shorthand) has been left unpublished (although approximately half of it has already been transcripted).It seems that more emphasis had been given by the editors and their colleague commentators on INTERPRETING Godel rather than making the inaccessible original material available to the wider public.I have always doubted the wisdom of Feferman's chief-editorship on this and other issues

Nevertheless, Feferman turns out to be a much more successful co-biographer of Tarski than an editor of Godel.The Tarski book goes far beyond my expectation.I simply couldn't put it down and went without sleeps for several nights until my eyes could no longer tolerate my indulgence.The reading has made Tarski an immensely more interesting figure to me - almost as interesting and intriguing as the enigmatic Godel.This aftermath is something which I could never have anticipated in my wildest dreams beforehand.

Since I agree with much of the praises from the Amazon Editorial and Customer Reviews of the book, I don't think it desirable to re-enumerate the book's various merits which others have already done.Needless to say, the book is not perfect and leaves much that is desired unaccounted.For one thing, although the book does present an interesting picture of the development of logic in the last century, it is presented from the Fefermans' highly personalized viewpoint and very one-sided.For example, from the book the reader will only get a very uninformed idea of the development of set theory which happens to be both Tarski's lifelong "hobby" and a source of intellectual uneasiness since he had a certain (though ambivalent perhaps, for he sometimes spoke in a Platonist tone) nominalist temperament while set theory is prima facie concerned with highly transfinite objects and often pursued by pronounced "realists" like Cantor, Zermelo, Godel (who was in effect described insane when Tarski declared himself as "the greatest living sane logician" ) et al.It is arguable that similar tension should also occur in Model Theory where Tarski reigned.But there is no discussion on this issue.It will also be interesting to know how Tarski reacted towards the epoch-making invention of forcing by P.Cohen in 1963, when the former was still an active researcher.The Fefermans say almost nothing on this either, although S.Feferman himself was one of the earliest developers of forcing immediately after Cohen.My own conjecture is that, like Godel, Tarski did not take forcing to be FUNDAMENTAL.Godel almost had a proof of the independence of the axiom of choice in the 1940s, but he abandoned the project partly because he did not want to encourage other logicians to plunge into a pursuit of independence proofs instead of trying to discover and develop new, further TRUE axioms of mathematics.Presumably the nominalist (by lips?) Tarski will perceive the issue very differently from the Platonist Godel.Yet the book gives us little clues about such and various other issues.

Paradoxically, it is precisely from the frankly personalized and unsystematic viewpoints of the Fefermans and other intimates of Tarski that we find much that is valuable.Moreover, unlike the Godel case, the authors did not forget to let the protagonist to present himself.And in spite of its moderate length and lack of comprehensiveness the book does manage to weave abundant insights into their captivating story of this intriguing man who is, given all his unconventional acts and deeds notwithstanding, first and foremost "powered by his ideas" (as Peter Hoffman puts it) with an extraordinary self-confidence throughout his life.It is amidst this web of insights that we are granted some of those very rare glimpses into the mind of a genius that so few biographers have ever accomplished.

truth is in the eye of the phd student!?
unlike all the previous praises this book seems to have gotten, i was not impressed by it. the book is an account of tarski the academician as seen/experienced by his phd students one of whom is the co-author himself.

the book is an account of tarski's academic life which is apparently believed to be best reflected through his students' eyes. this account fails to put in anything else. even what his son and daughter have to say is missing for the most part. there are many things which go unexplained or unquestioned:
1. why was tarski so much into nature?
2. why was he obsessed with rigor and formality? just stating an observation and looking for the reasons of that observation makes the difference between a fact telling book on the verge of being a mere factoid and an intriguing/enriching one. this book is unfortunately as shallow as can be when it comes to some psychological assessments.
3. why was tarski a womanizer? was he really that or did he like portraying himself as one?
4. was he a tyrant and if so, why?

the authors make a huge deal out of the fact that he was a jew. can it be that this whole emphasis on his religious and ethnic origin is anachronic in nature? maybe he just did not care, really. why did he choose catholicism? just because? or was he so ambitious that he did not really have any ground rules at all? in the end, these questions all go unanswered.

giving 5 stars for such a shallow book is unwarranted and is an unjust blow to some successful biographies such as the enigma (about alan turing) crafted by andrew hodges. ... Read more

Product Description
Pulled together for the first time, and paired with commentary from the world's most respected scholars, God Created the Integers presents history's extraordinary moments in math, culled from 2,500 years of history and 21 distinguished mathematicians, four more than the hardcover edition. Each chapter begins with a profile of one of these mathematical masters, followed by original printings of their relevant works. This new paperback edition includes the work of Euler, Galois, Bolyai, and Lobachevsky.

Readers get a window into the minds of these geniuses and can see the unfolding thought process as it leads, inevitably, to the high-water marks in mathematical thinking. This new edition comes with an index to make it a valuable and easy-to-use research and reference tool.Amazon.com Review
"God created the integers," wrote mathematician Leopold Kronecker, "All the rest is the work of Man." In this collection of landmark mathematical works, editor Stephen Hawking has assembled the greatest feats humans have ever accomplished using just numbers and their brains. Each of the 17 sections opens with a historical introduction of the featured author, and proceeds to a faithful translation of their most famous work. While most mathematicians will already have complete editions of Isaac Newton's Principia or Georg Cantor's Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, this book is unique in presenting just the best bits of these and other theoretical works. The collection spans 2,500 years and covers a vast range of theories: the parallel postulate, Boolean logic, differential calculus, and the philosophy of the unknowable among them. Dense with numbers, formulae, and ideas, God Created the Integers is quite challenging, but Hawking rewards curious readers with a look at how mathematics has been built. In contrast to the towering physical edifices of great civilizations of the past, Hawking writes, "The greatest wonder of the modern world is our understanding." --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

integers
most of the book is reprints of what other mathematicians have published
stephen hawking's comments on their stuff is pretty good, and can be used as kind of a guide to the evolution of math up to present day, ie into the age of computers and algorhythms

Exciting to read the great proofs but needs more editing
This book gives the ancient theories and proofs of math. It is thrilling to read, for example, proofs by Descartes and Archimedes showing the area of a circle and how to use geometry to depict the product of two numbers or their square root long before the modern tools of calculus were developed.In so doing you can learn how the area of a circle is r^2.(Archimedes said that a circle with radius r and circumference 2r has the same area as a right triangle with height r and baseline 2r.The area of this triangle is 1/2 base * height = 1/2 * 2r * r = r^2).What I just clearly explained here is not so clearly explained by Stephen Hawking.Hawking famously explained to the laymen in his book on the universe the theories of Einstein.But his editors in this book fell short perhaps unable to comprehend what they read.This book would be of better use to the laymen if Hawking proceeded as does David Foster Wallace in his own book on math to walk the reader through these proofs one small step at a time.Instead Hawkins tosses out these ideas in tersely worded passages that do not assist those who are less clever in understanding what is means.This book could take one a lifetime (or even longer) to distill.Its ideas so important, clever, and yes God-like in its beauty that each time I am able to understand one proof completely I plan to post my own explanation on the Internet for other students to read.BTW this book is in it's nth edition.Each subsequent edition 1,2,3, n-1 must have been a revision made to correct logical and technical errors in the mathematics.Might I suggest that version n+1 include some improvement in the prose as well.

math
Math, math, everywhere there is math. I have not finished this book. I will be a long time finishig this book, but it is great reading for an 11 hour flight to Europe. This is a book that can be read several times and more can be learned each time read. Not a late night book, it stirs the brain into overdrive!

Awkward layout
It's not a straight through linear read, but more of a pick the stuff that interests you and read it. The paperback version of the book is very difficult to handle due to the size, also the page formatting tries to use every ounce of space with the smallest of fonts. Not as good as I thought it would be.

interesting history
If you enjoy math and the history of science, you will like this compilation of works from ancient to modern times.Hawking's brief comments are interesting for prespective and some superficial explanation of the mathematics, but the main gist of this book is the reproduction of the seminal works themselves, from Euclid to Godel, living from 325 BCE to 1978 CE.
One gets a sense of the paradigm shift from geopetry to calculus to number theory and so on.For instance, it is fascinating that geometers calculated pi to between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71, but apparently did not come up with the limit concept that made calculus possible.Looking at their papers, it is amazing what they did with triangles and proofs, compared to what many of us probably struggled with in middle to high school geometry/ trigonometry.They were just one small insight away from the calculus, it seems, from looking at their diagrams!
By the middle of the book, the math surpassed my experience, but it was still interesting to try and follow along by skimming through it.
Is this book for a layperson?Only one with a strong interest in math, and even then, maybe not for everyone.It is not a textbook.I did not understand a lot of it, but I still enjoyed it.For a mathematician, this would be a fantastic gift, I should think. ... Read more

Product Description

Written by a distinguished cast of contributors, this book is the definitive collection of essays in commemoration of Alan Turing. The volume spans the entire rich spectrum of his life, thoughts, and legacy, but also sheds some new light on the future of computing science with a chapter contributed by visionary Ray Kurzweil.

Further important contributions come from the philosopher Daniel Dennett, the Turing biographer Andrew Hodges, and the distinguished logician Martin Davis, who provides a first critical essay on an emerging and controversial field termed hypercomputation.

A special highlight of the book is the play by Valeria Patera that examines the scandal surrounding the last apple, and presents as an enigma, the life, death, and destiny of the man who did so much to decipher the Nazi enigma code during the Second World War. By contrast, deciphering the meaning of Alan's life remains much more difficult.

The book also contains achapter on Turing's last, almost lost, somehow obscure, and ill-understood work on Fibonacci phyllotaxis, and a chapter on his almost forgotten connectionist ideas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Turing died too soon
Teuscher has gathered together a set of thought provoking essays about Turing and the ideas he espoused. The diverse range of the essays is a good reflection of Turing's genius.

The essay on making a self-replicating Turing machine reflects earlier speculations on what might more generally be considered a self-replicating Neumann machine.

There is a palpable sense of loss in the book. Turing died at a relatively young age. What if he had lived decades longer? He could have seen the immense flowering of computing, in hardware and software. With his genius, what other insights might he have given us? If you wish, you can regard the book as speculations into this unknowable.

One of the book's authors, Copeland, has recently edited another book -'The Essential Turing', which has essays by Turing himself, and you may want to look at that text.

Man of many parts
This book celebrates the 90th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing by bringing together a large set of essays on topics as diverse and colourful as the work and life of the man himself. Turing's fundamental contributions to computing kick started the modern computing era. However, he also made early and outstanding contributions to artificial intelligence, artificial neural networks, morphogenesis, cryptology and the philosophy of mind. The book touches on all these areas and includes contributions from luminaries such as Martin Davis, Daniel Dennett, Andrew Hodges, Douglas Hofstadter and Ray Kurzweil. The book also contains some essays on contemporary topics related to Turing's work such as the controversial area of so-called hypercomputation. While many of the essays are advanced, the material remains accessible and interesting. Turing had a strikingly original and whimsical imagination - reflecting this, and unlike many books on technical topics, this one includes some of the kind of speculation that is bound to fire the imagination of readers. Will computers outstrip human intelligence, and when might it happen? Will we become more like computers, or will they become more like us? Ninety years on from the birth of Alan Turing such issues are more relevant and pressing than ever, and this book makes an excellent advanced introduction to the breadth of Turing's work. ... Read more

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This biography attempts to shed light on all facets of Zermelo's life and achievements. Personal and scientific aspects are kept separate as far as coherence allows, in order to enable the reader to follow the one or the other of these threads. The presentation of his work explores motivations, aims, acceptance, and influence. Selected proofs and information gleaned from unpublished notes and letters add to the analysis.

Product Description
This multifaceted collection of essays, reminiscences and professional papers combine to create a tribute to Georg Kreisel, the influential logician and mathematical philosopher. The book aims to communicate to a wider circle his personal and intellectual influence. The contributors include Verena Huber-Dyson, Sol Feferman and Francis Crick. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting book about an interesting man
It is false that this book is ONLY for "mathematician fans and armchair philosophers" as the Amazon review insinuates. The book contains many mathematical and serious philosophical articles as well asinvaluable personal information about one of the most interesting logiciansof all times... Useful and inspiring. A good antidote against dessicatedacademics! ... Read more

Product Description
The award-winning author of A Small Death in Lisbon brings an exciting richness to the long shadow of evil in this crackling new novel of spycraft and international intrigue.

Lisbon, 1944:
Andrea Aspinall, plucked out of academia by British intelligence so that her mathematical knowledge might help in the hunt for atomic secrets, disappears under a new identity in Lisbon, where such secrets are easily bought and sold.
Karl Voss, already experienced in the illusions of intrigue when he arrives in Lisbon, is an attachŽ at the German Legation, though he is secretly working against the Nazis to rescue Germany from annihilation.

After a night of terrible violence, Andrea creates a family for herself from Voss's memory and the clandestine world they knew. In Portugal, in England, and in the chilly world of Cold War Berlin, she discovers that the deepest secrets aren't held by governments-and that death is a relative term. In The Company of Strangers, Robert Wilson takes the chilling irony of "secret intelligence" to a new and more poignant human level, as he shows that the heart is both more knowing and more secretive than the mind.

Amazon.com Review
Robert Wilson, whose award-winning A Small Death in Lisbon broke him out as an international thriller writer in the Ambler, le Carré, and Furst tradition, scores with this exceptionally well-plotted novel of wartime intrigue in England and Portugal. Andrea Aspinall, a brilliant young British mathematician, is recruited by the British Secret Service and put through a rush course in spycraft before being sent to Lisbon, where she quickly falls in love with a disenchanted German agent and, in less than two weeks, manages to lose her virginity, unmask a conspiracy, and interrupt Germany's plan to build the first atomic bomb. The action covers a long time span--from the early years of Word War II to the era of glasnost, when Andrea, now an Oxford mathematician long retired from spying, encounters the man she once loved and lost. Karl Voss has become an East German double agent who's bent on revealing the Russian mole in England's service. The narrative wanders a bit, but the strong, spare writing and deft characterization set this apart as one of the year's better international espionage novels, one that should introduce Wilson to a bigger audience. --Jane Adams ... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

Love the author but this is not his best work by far
The Company of Strangers reminds me of several books depending on which part I'm in.However, the different parts are quite disparate and this interferes with the coherency of the book.

The first part of the book takes place largely in Germany and WWII Portugal and can't help but draw comparison to his excellent A Small Death in Lisbon.There's lots of intrigue, people who do not act like they really are, and lots of great color about Lisbon and the surrounding area.

But then the book leaps forward to the 1970's, and it feels very much like Smiley's People.Finally, in the last hundred pages it morphs again, but this time into something very much like The Company.

All three of the works I've referenced are highly recommended, but each one stayed true to itself throughout each work and that is a formula that pays off.

Unfortunately, the transitions in TCOS don't work that well, and in particular, it feels like the last 100 pages were pared down significantly from their original form because this part of the book is quite sparse whereas the middle section seems overly long.

It's worth noting that this is his longest book.Wilson seems far better suited to works in the 300-350 page range.

If you've never read Wilson before, run, don't walk and buy either A Small Death or start his 4 volume masterwork about contemporary Seville, The Blind Man of Seville.Both are 5 star books and will not disappoint you.

Not his best work
As much as I have liked the 4 other Robert Wilson books I have read, I found "The Company of Strangers"very disappointing. The central plot device would be more appropriate for a television soap opera.It is reminiscent more of "The Thorn Birds", or "The Winds of War" than Wilson's other books.As wild as his plots are in his Seville series, they are tempered by character development and a sense of place that render this series very satisfying.All I felt when I finished "The Company of Strangers" was cheated by last half of the book.

The Woman Mathematician As Spy
Robert Wilson's "The Company of Strangers" is, for me, a difficult book to review. Why?

First, it's really 3 books: The author himself divides the story into 3 books.Book 1 is 286 pages long and takes place in the 1940's in Germany, Portugal and England. Book 2 encompasses the next 158 pages and takes place from 1968-71 in England and East Germany. Book 3 is really an epilogue, encompassing the final 48 pages, set in England. Thus, we must travel through about 46 years with the primary characters, all of whom are elegantly tragic.

Second, the story is basically about one mildly interesting British woman mathematician - Andrea -- and her 2 very brief, bizarre episodes as a spy. Of course, there is her German love interest - Karl -- and his considerably more interesting personal life story and high risk service as a spy. Double agents abound. Intrigue is everywhere.While the story is clever, the gist of the actual work of all these spies is commonplace. Andrea is quite clever, resourceful and brave. Karl, in a time of utter conformity, is a true individual with a conscience and practical street sense.I liked him a lot.

Third, the story is very complex, a bit obscure from time to time (though not as mind-numbingly incoherent as John Le Carre's "Most Wanted Man"), and way too detailed with way too many shadowy and unnecessary characters. Additionally, Robert Wilson LOVES detail, especially environmental sights, sounds and smells. He also LOVES kinky and often gruesome and demeaning sex and terribly violent murder and death scenes. The overdone detail smudges the story and makes a reader read rapidly to escape it.He really need not regale a reader with a description of what one sees from a car window while driving on EVERY street in Lisbon, London or East Berlin.

That said, except for a really dead part from pages 290 - 330, the book is surprisingly interesting, at times absorbing and often exciting. The final chase scene in Lisbon (end of Book 1) is excellent. To be sure, the World War II era is the best part, truly interesting, but then again, those Nazis were are great fodder for such novels, no?I'll never grow tired of them. The Cold War espionage era never was, to me, all that interesting, but Wilson does pretty well in making all those ugly people and their entirely idiotic conduct, relatively interesting, but - to be honest - never exciting.

So, we have 3 books to try to absorb. Book 1 is a 4+. Book 2 is a 2+. Book 3 is ---- well, just an epilogue, purportedly tying it all together - sort of. By then, I honestly didn't care that much about what had become of the aging Andrea and Karl. The end was disappointing.

All-in-all, there is too much detail, it's a bit too gruesome, it's way too complicated, and there are too many characters.

But, its' excellently written and quite entertaining, with several memorable phrases and lines, such as the extraordinary "retrospective genius" phrase found on page 434.

Balancing everything it's a 3.

Great first half not quite sustained
Reading this thriller was like reading two separate books inexpertly stitched together. In the first half, a young English student is recruited by her country's secret service and sent to Portugal in 1944 for the purpose of espionage, although her exact assignment is not exactly explained. There, she falls in love at first sight, or rather at first grip, with a German diplomat who turns out to be a double-agent involved in an assassination attempt against Hitler. This part of the book is masterlful, despite many holes in the plot. But one forgives them because the pace is so fast and furious and the tension so taut. For the most part it's very well-written, although occasionally over-written with a couple too many soaring metaphors for my liking. But this author has a real poetic gift -- he often made me quite jealous. Wilson lives in Portugal and really makes the setting come to life -- the hot dusty hills surrounding Lisbon and the dingy streets of the city itself.
The second half of the book is less successful. Tragically divided, the lovers go their separate ways for decades. I won't give away the plot -- suffice to say that they meet again in Cold War East Berlin. This part of the story has the feel of warmed-over John Le Carre. You get sentences like this: "He drove a slow circuit of the blocks of flats before coming out again on the Karl Marx Allee and heading east on the Frankfurter Allee.He turned right in Freidrichsfelde, past the white expanse of the Tierpark, under the S-bahn bridge and then left into the Kopenicker Allee." And it goes on from there. Yes, the author has done his research trip and mastered the street names. But for the reader, it's boring. Names alone do not produce atmosphere.
I also have to say I really didn't like the way this book ended. A pity because so much of it was so superior to the general run of thrillers. Despite my criticism, it's still very much worth reading.
[...]

Excellent book, if you can get through the first 100 or so pages
I just finished this book and I have to say I was blown away!Before writing this review I read the 1 and 2 star reviews and I have to agree with some of what they are saying but in the end this author really pulled it off. The beginning is slow and being a big fan of authors like Clive Cussler and Vince Flynn this is not the action packed type of spy novel and Andrea is no Mitch Rapp, and neither is Karl Voss but that doesn't make the book bad.To call this a thriller is over stepping though.The book has exciting parts in it but it's a dramatic and very romantic (not smut) book.Some of the other reviews found the ending sad and I have to admit I'm the kind of guy that likes a happy ending but I think the ending is brilliant! ... Read more

Product Description
The name of Bernhard Riemann is well known to mathematicians and physicists around the world. College students encounter the Riemann integral early in their studies. Real and complex function theories are founded on Riemann's work. Einstein's Theory of Gravitation would be unthinkable without Riemannian Geometry. In number theory, Riemann's famous conjecture stands as one of the classic challenges to the best mathematical minds and continues to stimulate deep mathematical research. The name is indelibly stamped on the literature of mathematics and physics.

This book, originally written in German and presented here in an English language translation, is the first attempt to examine Riemann's scientific work from a single unifying perspective. Laugwitz describes Riemann's development of a conceptual approach to mathematics at a time when conventional algorithmic thinking dictated that formulas and figures, rigid constructs, and transformations of terms were the only legitimate means of studying mathematical objects. David Hilbert gave prominence to the Riemannian principle of utilizing thought, not calculation, to achieve proofs. Hermann Weyl interpreted the Riemann principle for mathematics and physics alike to be a matter of "understanding the world through its behavior in the infinitely small."

This remarkable work, rich in insight and scholarship, is addressed to mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers interested in mathematics. It seeks to draw those readers closer to the underlying ideas of Riemann's work and to the development of them in their historical context. This illuminating English language version of the original German edition will be an important contribution to the literature of the history of mathematics. ... Read more

Product Description
Metaphysical literary suspense from a compelling new voice in fiction

For most of his adult life—through two marriages and countless travels—the mathematician Philip Mazyrk has carried on a love affair with Irma Arcuri. Now Irma has vanished and left Philip her entire library of 351 books, five of them written by Irma herself. Buried in the text of this library—Cervantes to Turgenyev, Borges to Fowles—lay the secrets of Irma’s disappearance and, in the novels Irma has written, the story of her elusive and romantic past with Philip.

Philip, a math genius who sees equations in every facet of life, reads the novels and begins to sense a more profound and troubling design at work. A mysterious woman appears; his ex-wife reveals a terrible secret; his stepdaughter, Nicole, long troubled by the free-spirited nature of her parents’ lives, approaches a dangerous turn; and Nicole’s teenage brother has fled. As clues, warnings, and implications both inside and outside the library mount, Philip begins to realize that he too is trapped in a narrative. Who is Irma Arcuri? What is really buried in the library? And, most important, whose story is this?

Like the work of Milan Kundera or John Fowles, Bajo’s novel is brazenly passionate, sexy, even transgressive, yet thrillingly mysterious. Addictive, compelling, and clever, The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri will captivate fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Shadow of the Wind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Dense, pretentious, and repetitive
A friend who devours books recommended this book to me. I saved it for vacation and struggled through the first three days of my trip while attempting to determine why anyone would find value in this book. No question, the sex was alluring and unlike some others here who hated the book, I have no issue with Irma's sexuality. It was one of the truly unique elements of the book. Beyond the erotica, however, the writing was dense, pretentious, and repetitive. Like a previous reviewer, I kept thumbing forward to see when the chapter would come to an end, so I could determine just how much longer I had to hang in there. I had the distinct impression that Bajo was trying to be Hemingway -- writing of the "lost generation" in prose that tries too hard to be poetic. He ain't Hemingway.

I COMPLETELY Agree With "Juushika"'s Review
I read Juushika's review and wish that I had written it myself!I second everything that was written in that review.I initially saw the book on a shelf in a bookstore and I was so intrigued by the title (moreso the cover photo actually) that I picked it up and read the back cover.I did not buy it at that time but I found that the premise of the book and the synopsis of the characters stayed with me all week.I could not get the imagery or the idea of the plot out of my mind.Somehow I was already attached to the two main characters based on the back cover description.So a couple of weeks later I caved in and bought the book.At first I was in LOVE with the book.As I read the first 1/3 of the book I loved it so much I wished I could eat, it was so good!But as I reached the middle of the book I realized that it had fizzled and become boring in its confusing way.I could no longer make sense of what was going on; what was reality or perhaps it was happening in one of Irma's books.I lost track of the different characters and their place in the story.I pressed on for a couple of chapters past the halfway mark but it never got any better and I lost more and more interest.I am disppointed that what started out as promising I could not ever force myself to endure to the end.I am not one to quit reading a book so easily, so believe me when I tell you that I really TRIED to like this book.And that revelation says it all.

I Felt As If I Had Read All 351 Books...
Have you ever read a book where you found yourself thumbing ahead just to see how many pages remained in the chapter because you couldn't wait to have an excuse to put the damn thing down?This book will inspire that type of behavior because even a chapter at a time is fairly torturous. A weak, rambling storyline populated by characters who are, for the most part, bland and increasingly distasteful as this seemingly endless tale slogs on.I found it difficult to see what the magical attraction of Irma might be--best as I could discern she was nothing more than an arrogant, self-important, self-absorbed, self-centered, nymphomaniacal, bisexual woman who had no problem screwing every member of the narrator's family including his step-children.Exciting!. (Come to think of it, maybe her promiscuous manner is what kept the flame burning for the dolt narrator and the moronic, oh-so-serious teenager he roams around Spain with.)It kind of reminded me of Love in the Time of Cholera in that it is another book full of syrupy language designed to sugar-coat some fairly amoral behavior--and it is equally as boring and pointless.Like Garcia Marquez this author has a brilliant command of language but didn't seem to put it to good storytelling use in this effort.

Simply Beautiful
I found this book to be elegant, beautiful and simply impossible to put down.There is a lot of sex, but don't let that deter you - it's aspirational, but really conveys the mood. Other reviewers have stated all this more thoroughly and better than me, but I just wanted to chime in and say that relying on the previous positive reviews was, for me, a good move.

A Lot of Sex, Confusion
I guess I have no one to blame but myself for not really liking this novel because I went into it expecting something totally different.When I saw "351 books" in the title and read that the protagonist was a math genius, I thought this would be something I might enjoy a lot--a story that looks at the world through the dual lenses of (almost) a book a day and the mathematical mindset.Instead, I was drawn into a confusing story that seemed to do both literature and math a disservice.

The novel starts off promising enough: the math whiz, Philip Masryk, is left a collection of 351 beautifully bound books by his soul-mate, yet seeming opposite, the bookbinder, Irma Arcuri.She has, for some reason I'm still not clear on, decided to abandon her lover and disappear somewhere in the world.But she has left him clues in the books she has bound for him and he pursues her.So far, so good.

It soon becomes apparent, however, that there are real problems in this novel.Here are some of my disappointments: first, the books are really secondary here.It's an interesting premise that's wasted.Five of the books are "authored" by Irma and of the "real" novels, the most important pieces are lines inserted into the text by Irma.Only Don Quixote seems to be used with any real impact.The rest are pointless background.

Second, Philip is the only character that is really well-developed and, granted, he is interesting in his way.His running obsessions and focused way of thinking are fun to see.Still, it's hard to believe that so many women want to have sex with this math introvert, especially since he manages to cheat on them all. And I didn't really believe this idea of Philip turning everything into an equation.I've met a lot of high level mathematicians in my career and I've never known one to do this--wish about it, maybe.It reminded me of that stupid thing they do in Time Out New York with their equation of the week.

By the way, there is a lot of sex in this book.Not necessarily a bad thing but, as I said before, I don't really get the appeal of Philip to all the women he beds.And Irma is so distant that she never becomes a fully-formed character.It's hard to see her appeal.And yet, every character in this book seems driven primarily by their sexual desire for Irma, who seems to have had sex with everyone.That includes Philip's ex-wives as well as his step-children.Unnecessarily strange, if you ask me.

The fact of the matter is, I walked away from this novel very confused about what I experienced and what I was supposed to take away from it.The books sort of fizzles out rather than finishes.I don't know if there's more to come but, despite some very readable passages, the overall effect doesn't leave me wishing for more. ... Read more

Product Description
At the age of 31 John Nash, mathematical genius, suffered a devastating breakdown and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Yet after decades of leading a ghost-like existence, he was to re-emerge to win a Nobel Prize and world acclaim. The inspiration for a major motion picture directed by Ron Howard, Sylvia Nasar's award-winning biography is a drama about the mystery of the human mind, a triumph over incredible adversity, and the healing power of love.Amazon.com Review
Stories of famously eccentric Princetonians abound--such asthat of chemist Hubert Alyea, the model for The Absent-MindedProfessor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to thelibrary as an undergraduate. Or the "Phantom of Fine Hall,"a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of themath and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writingnumerology treatises on the blackboards. The Phantom was John Nash,one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who hadspiraled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work hadbeen in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large partof economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prizefor game theory, Nash's name inevitably came up--only to be dismissed,since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, inremission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics forwork done some 45 years previously.

Economist and journalist SylviaNasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of hislife. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of hismathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocativebut decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash'sNobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available inprint (the CIA could learn a thing or two from the Nobelcommittees). This highly recommended book is indeed "a storyabout the mystery of the human mind, in three acts: genius, madness,reawakening." --Mary Ellen Curtin ... Read more

Customer Reviews (291)

boy, does he look a lot like russell crowe!
It's amazing how much the picture of John Nash on the cover of this excellent biography looks like Russell Crowe! Or is it Russell Crowe who has the beautiful mind? How can someone with a beautiful mind throw a phone at a hotel receptionist?

All kidding aside, this is an enjoyable read. The subject is well known to moviegoers, so they'll be quick to spot the mistakes in this book where it makes up incidents not found in the movie and shamelessly distorts other incidents found in the movie just to make a better-reading book. But that typically happens whenever a writer decides to write a book based on a movie. All journalistic integrity is forgotten in the interests of commercial appeal.

To recapitulate, John Nash was a brilliant mathematician and a sometime a**hole who after publishing some breakthrough papers lost his mind intermittently for several decades, finally finding it again and re-emerging reasonably sane shortly after winning a belated Nobel Prize in Economics for his first big discovery in game theory. This raises interesting questions about the nature of paranoid schizophrenia and its interaction with brilliance. It's fun to speculate about this topic, especially because there are really no hard facts or proven theories so anybody's opinion is about as good as anyone else's. Certainly the author had fun speculating.

For those readers who wish to learn more about Nash's mathematical discoveries there is the "Essential John Nash", which I challenge anyone without a strong background in math to understand any of.

This Book Helped Me to Understand Schizophrenia
This book is an interesting and well-written account of a highly intelligent and creative man who suffered from schizophrenia. Like many people, I first heard of Nash by watching the movie starring Russell Crowe. The movie is true to the basic outline of the biography, but omits or fudges many relevant details. For example, the movie didn't mention Nash's travels to Europe or his divorce. From the movie, one would think that Nash's disorder began at graduate school at Princeton, since that is when he first "sees" his imaginary roommate. This imaginary roommate isn't mentioned in the book.

Although eccentric and strange, Nash didn't suffer his first breakdown until age 30, which is relatively late for schizophrenia. If Nash had developed this disorder when he was 20, no one would have heard of him, and there would be no biography to read. It's important to emphasize this point. For every famous person like Nash, there are thousands of talented people who, due to mental illness, never get a chance to exercise their talents.

What precipitated Nash's initial breakdown? It could have been his marriage that occurred two years before, along with his wife's pregnancy. Stress is known to precipitate psychiatric symptoms, and major life changes like getting married and having a child are significant sources of stress. It could have been a European honeymoon trip that Nash and his wife went on about 6 months prior to his breakdown. There's no way to know for sure.

After his breakdown and initial hospitalization, Nash gave up his tenured position at MIT and headed to Europe, where he would spend the next 9 months, attempting to renounce his U.S. citizenship and become a "world citizen." This behavior exemplifies that the severe mental illnesses are primarily disorders of instability. Who in his right mind would give up a tenured faculty position at MIT? Most normal people crave stability, and there's nothing more stable than a tenured position. Mentally ill people crave the opposite; for them the stability of a tenured position is both frightening and undesirable. Nash's travels are further indications of instability.

After Nash returned to the U.S., he had temporary episodes of sanity alternating with psychotic episodes. With some brief exceptions, he wasn't able to resume his career until he had a remission in his fifties. This remission occurred after having lived a relatively quiet and stable life at Princeton for over ten years. Nash won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1994.

Nasar's biography convinces me that schizophrenia is closer to bipolar disorder than Alzheimer's Disease. Schizophrenia is an episodic disease, characterized by alternating sanity and insanity, of rational thought and delusions. At least in Nash's case, it doesn't appear to be degenerative.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in the biographical details of an eminent man's battle with mental illness.

An inspiring, compelling and, ultimately, beautiful read
This is the book that inspired the film of the same name staring Russell Crow. Whilst elements of the story are similar, anyone coming to the book from the film, as I did, will find a more complex, interesting, and, on occasions, unlikeable Nash than the Hollywood version.

Starting with his early, pre-illness, days, Nash begins as a typically brilliant, temperamental, and eccentric genius. He knew it too with his interpersonal skills making him aloof and arrogant. Although it might have been wonderful to meet the early Nash, it is hard to see how one would have liked him. It seems astonishing, therefore, that anyone would feel romantically attracted to Nash, much less devote their life to his care, but this is exactly what Alicia Nash took on. The terrible effects of paranoid schizophrenia are evident in Nash's decline into alternative realities, which threatened to end his life as much as his career. It is a terrible illness. That Nash was able to recover is perhaps testament to his determination to restart his career as well as the unfailing love of his wife. For me, the title of the book could easily belong to Alicia.

Nasar writes wonderfully well and she conveys the complexity of Nash's thoughts and his decline into illness in extraordinary detail. Occasionally, as with all good biographies, you feel that the characters let you down and Nasar never shies away from telling the whole truth. Whilst her voice is silent through most of the book it is only at the end, when the prejudice against mental illness comes to the fore, that Nasar allows her own distaste of such bias to surface. It forms a fitting conclusion to this monumental work.

Good reading
I bought this book after watched the movie based on the same book.

I like movies based on academic settings.

The book arrived on time and in good shape.

not like the movie at all
Nasar is a good writer and she's obviously done her research.My problem was with the subject matter.In this book John Nash comes across as boring, creepy, and a bit of a jerk.Not the kind of person I care to read about. ... Read more