The parts on Gauss are more entertaining -- he was so mean! Still, he comes across here as being a lot more interesting than Humboldt, who seems like a glorified data collector. Instead of traveling far and wide gathering data, Gauss stayed home and discovered more basic, universal truths about the structure of the world. ( )

How interesting can a book about two 18th century scientists be? My curiosity was raised by some reviews in newspapers, calling Kehlmann the wonderboy of contemporary German literature. However, I didn't expect too much of this.

So, yes, a book about two 18th century scientists can indeed be interesting and amusing. The book focusses not so much on science, but rather on the characters of two highly intelligent men. One - Humboldt - travels all over the world to do research, the other - Gauss - stays at home, but their results are similar. Chapters alternately focus on either one of the characters, so through the eyes of the one you take part in the exploration of South America, and through the other you experience the theoretical approach to science.

Despite their different approaches to science, the two men have many similarities: being way more intelligent than others, not being able to respect these others, and having difficulties understanding that some people would say that there are more important things in the world than science. Such as friendship, or loyalty, or love. These men are a bit funny, you could say, and this is definitely how Kehlmann describes them. To me, the weakness in the book is that, despite their different lives, the characters of these two men are described as too much the same, in their way of communicating, in their social interaction, in their choice of words. And that, by using humour as a style, Kehlmann creates a certain distance between these characters and the reader, which is OK, but starts to get a little repetitive after awhile.

However, I liked the style of writing, the way the sentences are built, in a rhythmic way. I find it hard to describe what Kehlmann does, but there is some addictive quality in this prose that made me want to keep on reading, that is humoristic and kept me interested. So I do recommend this book. ( )

Bello, interessante, ironico, divertente! Non pensavo che le vicissitudini di un matematico (Gauss) e di un geografo (Humboldt) mi avrebbero appassionato tanto. ( )

not yet ( )