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61 ratings, 3.64 average rating, 8 reviews
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published
October 12th 1993
by Vintage
binding
Paperback, 256 pages
isbn
0679737995
(isbn13: 9780679737995)
description
When Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) proved that the earth was not the center of the universe, man's conception of his cosmos and his God broke down. T...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 93)
Read in November, 2008
I was expecting an impenetrable read full of abstract mathematics, but was surprised at how readable and engrossed I was by this book. It's an intimate portrait of a timid, deferential man with a gifted mind living in dark, brutal times.
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Read in April, 2008
Wow - what a roller coaster. Language brilliant and obscure, at times impenetrable. Some of the characters are painful - I never wanted to see Andreas and was pleased when he departed for Italy. His return in the final pages was gruelling. Not too heavy about Copernicus' theory. I'm forward to reading some more Banville.
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I thought this was an amazing book up until the last 50 pages but definitely worth picking up. Doctor Copernicus is much more than a fictionalized bio - its about the agonizing process of creativity and censorship, but mostly it attempts and succeeds in describing "the thing itself," the galaxy without metaphor.
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John Banville in this leg of trilogy of Revolutions paints a detailed sketch of Nicolas Copernicus- from his childhood to his long feeble death; his conflict in being a disciple of both the science and the church during the testing medievia in astonishingly sublime prose that only Banville is capable of.
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Read in February, 2008
Human themes distilled to their purest essence resonate even through a veil of another time. A richly descriptive construction of the torment of genius as a parallel compulsion to be human as if from first principles, and an enduring search for a truth beyond any sympathy for the human condition.
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Have begun this one. It begins with rather methodical setting of Dr. Copernicus' youthful background and growing up. Can't wait to get to the conflict to see how it is handled.
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Read in February, 2008
As dark as his work is John Banville is still one of my favorite writers. This book is no exception and surely not the account you read in school.
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Read in August, 2007
Anodino
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