Synopses & Reviews
Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) was an English writer, physician, and philosopher whose work has inspired everyone from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Jorge Luis Borges, Virginia Woolf to Stephen Jay Gould. In an intellectual adventure akin to Sarah Bakewell's book on Montaigne, , Hugh Aldersey-Williams sets off not just to tell the story of Browne's life but also to champion his skeptical nature and inquiring mind for our own age. Mixing botany, etymology, medicine, and literary history, Aldersey-Williams journeys in his hero's footsteps to introduce us to witches, zealots, natural wonders, and fabulous creatures of Browne's time and ours. He reveals how Browne's preoccupations--how to disabuse the credulous of their foolish beliefs, what to make of order in nature, how to unite science and religion--are relevant today. And he shows how Sir Thomas Browne himself remains, as Stephen Greenblatt has written, "unnervingly one of our most adventurous contemporaries."
Review
"Sir Thomas Browne was great English literary eccentric, but also a true philosopher, driven by curiosity about absolutely everything. One can't just like or admire him; to read him is to lose oneself in him." Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live
Review
"This is just the kind of celebration Sir Thomas Browne needs and deserves: not a conventional biography but a meditation filled with intellectual curiosity, tolerance, humane observation, and gentle wit. It shows Browne as a man caught in the currents of his times while musing on timeless questions--and, like Aldersey-Williams, determined to weigh up the evidence without dogmatism, and to enjoy the richness of the world." Sunday Herald (UK)
Review
"A wonderfully erratic, promenading book, in which we see how different, yet how similar we still are today to that most serene, most enigmatic science pioneer and literary master, Sir Thomas Browne, whose prose style is one of the highest peaks in English literature, according to Borges and to my humble self." Philip Ball
Review
"In reintroducing this singular thinker and writer, which Aldersey-Williams calls his 'obsession,' the author finds fresh insight. An elegant, pleasantly obsessive study of a 'life of tolerance, humour, serenity and untiring curiosity.'" Kirkus
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"A delightful portrait." Jim Holt
Review
"[F]ascinating.... [A] cleverly constructed and amusing book, on a subject deserving of fresh attention." New York Times Book Review
Review
"A triumph. With humour, humility and intelligent generosity, Aldersey-Williams brings Sir Thomas Browne splendidly to life, urns and all." Jeffrey Collins Wall Street Journal
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"Engaging and thoughtful.... Like some of the most compelling biographers, Aldersey-Williams partly inhabits his subject." Financial Times (UK)
Review
"Superb.... Aldersey-Williams has produced not a standard biography but a fascinating genre-bending melange of life story, medicine, science and human culture.... With luck this fine tribute will bring Browne the wider readership he richly deserves." Literary Review (UK)
Review
"[T]he intellectual equivalent of a buddy road trip." Javier Marías
Synopsis
The extraordinary life and ideas of one of the greatest--and most neglected--minds in history.
About the Author
Hugh Aldersey-Williams is the author of Anatomies, Periodic Tales, and The Most Beautiful Molecule, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in Norfolk, England.