The Revolutions Trilogy Books
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea comes a novel set in sixteenth-century Europe about an obscure cleric who is preparing a theory that will shatter the medieval view of the universe—while being haunted by his malevolent brother and threatened by the conspiracies raging around him and his ideas. Sixteenth-century Europe is teeming with change and controversy: wars are being waged by princes and bishops and the repercussions of Luther are being felt through a convulsing Germany. In a remote corner of Poland a modest canon is practicing medicine and studying the heavens, preparing a theory that will shatter the medieval view of the universe. In this astonishing work of historical imagination, John Banville offers a vivid portrait of a man of painful reticence. For, in a world that is equal parts splendor and barbarism, an obscure cleric who seeks “the secret music of the universe” poses a most devastating threat.
The Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea re-creates the life of the Renaissance mathematical genius Johannes Kepler and his incredible drive to chart the orbits of the planets and the geometry of the universe. In a brilliant illumination of the Renaissance mind, acclaimed Irish novelist John Banville tells the story of Johannes Kepler. Wars, witchcraft, and disease rage throughout Europe. For this court mathematician, vexed by domestic strife, appalled by the religious upheavals that have driven him from exile to exile, and vulnerable to the whims of his eccentric patrons, astronomy is a quest for some form of divine order. For all the mathematical precision of his exploration, though, it is a seemingly elusive quest until he makes one glorious and profound discovery.
An unforgettably elegant tale of obsession and the fragile line between reason and desire. In this compact literary gem, a historian retreats to a quiet cottage in rural Ireland to complete a biography of Isaac Newton—but the work stalls when he becomes absorbed by a mysterious letter Newton wrote in 1693, hinting at a personal and philosophical crisis. As the historian tries to understand the letter’s meaning, his own life begins to spiral. Drawn into the lives of the people around him—Charlotte, cool and distant; Ottilie, impulsive and alluring; and Edward, eccentric and watchful—he starts to lose his grip on both his project and his perspective. Like Newton, he is undone not by science, but by the murky, unmeasurable forces of the human heart. Banville’s prose is lyrical and precise, and The Newton Letter is both a meditation on genius and a portrait of quiet unraveling. A must-read for fans of psychological fiction and literary elegance.