Reading Daniel Kehlmann's "Measuring the World"
A cooperation of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) in Toronto: The Alliance Française, the Instituto Italiano di Cultura, Camões Toronto, and the Goethe-Institut.
At the next meeting of the European Book Club in Toronto, we will be discussing Daniel Kehlmann’s
Measuring the World (2005), a novel that was #1 on the Spiegel Bestseller list for 37 weeks and received critical acclaim worldwide. The New York Times placed it on second rank of the world’s most-sold books for the year of 2006.
Copies of the book(s) can be ordered online or at your local bookstore. Our library also carries English and German copies of the book(s).
The novel is set in the late 1820s and alternatingly follows the lives of Carl Gauss, a mathematician and physicist, and Alexander von Humboldt, a naturalist and geographer. Brought up under completely different circumstances, Gauss coming from a very poor background and being brought up solely by his mother, and Humboldt on the other side, as son of a rich family, enjoying a very in-depth education, their lives are equally different. While Gauss becomes more and more introvert and isolated due to his high intelligence and his inability to get along with most other people, Humboldt’s passion for research leads him to travel far-away countries and discover the world. What they share is their passion for science and their eagerness to explore everything there is. Their written correspondence keeps both of them, and the reader, up to date on their research projects.
Kehlmann ironically depicts the career of two brilliant minds without boring the reader with complicated scientific theories, and still manages to give the reader a good understanding of the mathematic and geographic discoveries of Humboldt and Gauss. The stark contrast between the two protagonists, the frequent exaggeration of comic situations and the constantly humorous undertone make this novel a fun read for everybody, no matter if one is interested in science or not. Moreover, it describes the lives of two historically important personalities and their failures and successes in an enjoyable, informative and entertaining way.
The discussion will be moderated by Philipp Schnaase. Born and raised in Rostock, Schnaase studied Philosophy and Social Science not only in his home town, but also in Münster, and in Montreal. Here he received his MA in Philosophy. Philipp Schnaase is a regular host for the Deutscher Filmklub at the Goethe-Institut and a library assistant for the Toronto Symphony.
EUNIC the network of the European cultural relations institutes in Toronto is formed by Alliance Française, British Council, Camões Toronto, Italian Cultural Institute and Goethe-Institute Toronto and exists since 2010.
The European Book Club meets periodically to discuss a European contemporary book translated into English in the different cultural institutions. This event will be in English.
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