The third brilliant short biography in Peter Ackroyd’s Brief Lives series. Newton is a companion volume to Chaucer and Turner.Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the English genius, made his greatest contributions to original thought before the age of twenty-five while at home in Lincolnshire escaping the great plague of 1665, a period of which he “I was in the prime of age for invention.”Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, an MP, Master of the Mind and President of the Royal Society, Newton, the author of Principia, one of the most important books in the history of science, was fascinated by calculus, the planets and the laws of motion, and, in keeping with his age, blurred the borders between natural philosophy and speculation. He was as passionate about astrology as astronomy, and dabbled in alchemy, while his religious faith was never undermined by his scientific efforts.
Ackroyts Korte Levens Reeks
Deze serie duikt in de levens en werken van opmerkelijke historische figuren, waarbij hun menselijkheid en vaak onverwachte persoonlijke details worden onthuld. Door een indringende en soms provocerende lens ontmoeten lezers complexe persoonlijkheden die de geschiedenis hebben gevormd. Elk deel biedt een frisse interpretatie van bekende gezichten, ontkracht mythen en presenteert ze in een nieuw licht. Het is meeslepende lectuur voor iedereen die geïnteresseerd is in geschiedenis en literatuur.
Aanbevolen leesvolgorde
Wilkie Collins
- 224bladzijden
- 8 uur lezen
Short and oddly built, with a head too big for his body, extremely short- sighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colourful clothes, Wilkie Collins looked distinctly strange. But he was none the less a charmer, befriended by the great, loved by children, irresistibly attractive to women - and avidly read by generations of readers.
Charlie Chaplin
- 272bladzijden
- 10 uur lezen
He was the very first icon of the silver screen, and is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood, even a hundred years on from his first film. This masterful brief life offers fresh revelations about one of the most familiar faces of the last century and brings the Little Tramp into vivid... číst celé