Art and Literature All books
Dava Sobel
Galileos Daughter
This is a most unusual biography about Galileos daughter. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was regarded by Albert Einstein not only as the father of modern physics but as the father of all modern science. His eldest child, Virginia, mirrored Galileos own brilliance, industry and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became his confidante. Their correspondence, reproduced throughout the book, reveals their intense relationship, based on tender attachment and intellectual stimulation. The little-known life of Maria Celeste gives a human dimension to one of the major seventeenth-century scientists. His struggle with the Church is a lasting symbol of the conflict between science and religion. Galileos Daughter offers a powerful account of papal Rome and of Florentine intellectual life during the time of the Medicis. Dava Sobel is a writer who lives in New York
Daniel Sibony
Shakespeare
An author popular with readers interested in psychoanalysis and books about literature. A highly original and exhaustive examination of one of the world’s most popular playwrights.
Jean-Pierre Changeux
The Beauty in the Brain
"Jean-Pierre Changeux is one of those rare spirits who both challenge and unify." A text containing ideas that are entirely new. Illustrated with many original case studies from the arts and sciences.
Herbert Lottman
The Committed Writer and his Ambivalences From Chateaubriand to Malraux
By definition, a committed writer is a well-known one who puts the respect and admiration his name has accrued in the service of a cause. But is it really that simple? Is political commitment only a matter of principles? Isnt it also driven by a quest for celebrity? Described here are the stratagems adopted by some of the greatest figures in the French literary pantheon of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as they faltered between a quest for purity and the desire for personal glory. Herbert Lottman is a renowned biographer.
Marc Crépon
The Writer’s Vocation
From earliest childhood we all know how violent, unfair, even inflexible, language can be — particularly when we have to confront our parents’ or schoolteachers’ anger.
Harald Fritzsch
E=mc2 A Formula which Changes the World
An imagined account of a meeting between Einstein and Newton, described as a dream. It provides the occasion for a fascinating discussion between two scientific geniuses and a most effective way to be introduced to the mysteries of physics by those who have themselves revolutionised the field. Professor of physics at the University of Munich, Harald Fritzsch is also an associate professor at the CERN of Geneva, and at the California Institute of Technology of Pasadena, in California.
Antoine Compagnon
Proust, Memory and Literature
“Proust and memory”: a cliché of literary criticism re-examined in a radical new manner.
Jean-Noël Beuzen
Music: From Creative Genius to Healing Therapy
A psychiatric study of music, genius and madness