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Galileo's Daughter

A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love

by Dava Sobel

ISBN: 0140280553
ISBN-13: 9780140280555
Format: Paperback

Summary

Drawing from over 100 recently translated letters, this historical account chronicles the life of the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei by examining his relationship with his eldest daughter, Virginia, a cloistered nun. This biography places their correspondence in historical context, detailing the religious and political climate of Galileo's time that led to his eventual conviction in 1633 for defending the Copernican system. A New York Times Notable Book for 1999.

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Media Reviews

"...showing once again her keen eye for the compelling stories that simmer beneath great discoveries, [Sobel] turns this seemingly meager material into genuine historical drama....The book is most remarkable for its graceful combination of scholarly integrity and rhapsodic tone. Sobel imbues this potentially dry, academic story with the language and cadence of oral storytelling, and she gives it all the dramatic suspense that narrative demands."    -- Casey Greenfield

   -- Salon

"But the real focus and appeal of Ms. Sobel's book is her account of Galileo's own life and career, which allows her to exercise the skills at scientific narrative that she put to such good use in a previous book, LONGITUDE:...Galileo's story has been told many times, but Ms. Sobel's graceful reworking of it makes several important points clearer. For one thing, it is enlightening to learn how much effort Galileo gave to the literary form of his scientific writings, which....For another thing, it is surprising to see how much Galileo equivocates in his expression of those ideas."    -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

   -- New York Times

"Dava Sobel tells Galileo's story with insight and clarity. But she adds to it another element which lifts her book into another dimension....Weaving Maria Celeste's obscure story into Galileo's famous one does more than add a touch Galileo's own religion which earlier accounts have lacked. This is a splendid and moving book, and Sister Maria Celeste, not Galileo, is its hero."    -- Eamon Duffy

   -- Electronic Telegraph (London)

"Forming the core of GALILEO'S DAUGHTER, Maria Celeste's 124 surviving letters to her father...brim with concern for the health of his body and soul....Ms. Sobel draws on these letters to make refreshing juxtapositions of the mundane and extraordinary....As in her previous book, LONGITUDE (1995), she here shows herself a virtuoso at encapsulating the history and the politics of science."    -- Francis X. Rocca

   -- Wall Street Journal

"In GALILIEO'S DAUGHTER, a briskly written history that reads like a novel, [Sobel] plunges into a 17th-century world where gravity had not been discovered, thermometers had not been invented and women could be consigned to convent life simply because they weren't marriageable....Counterbalancing Galileo's story with Maria Celeste's, Sobel tells not just their story but the story of their times....[This book] is innovative history and a wonderfully told tale."    -- Malcolm Jones

   -- Newsweek

"Sobel is a master storyteller....Here, she turns her talent to creating an exceptionally human narrative of the physicist whose achievements and thought have been equaled only by Newton and Einstein....What Sobel has done, with her choice of excerpts and her strong sense of story, is bring a great scientist to life. Reading GALILEO'S DAUGHTER, we hear Galileo's voice, we sense his pain and share his excitement, and once again we marvel at how the human mind, and heart, can lift so much."    -- Alan Lightman

   -- New York Times Book Review

"The best stories aren't always the newest, nor the most obvious.
Dava Sobel proved that in LONGITUDE, Her 1995 surprise best seller....Sobel returns to the 17th century in GALILEO'S DAUGHTER, a fascinating history lesson disguised as family drama....Sobel is a most original writer, with a reverence for history and storytelling."    -- Bob Minzesheimer

   -- USA Today

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Published date: 2000
Size: 5.5 x 8.25 inches
Weight: 0.9 pounds
Pages: 420

Publisher's Notes

The tender, inspiring relationship between Galileo and his daughter, a nun, is revealed through letters written between the two. Reprint.

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Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love

Sobel, Dava

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