by Dava Sobel
Inspired by a long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of his daughter Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel has crafted a biography that dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishments of a mythic figure whose early-seventeenth-century clash with Cathol...
One-sentence summary: though it has the title Galileo's Daughter, this is an ordinary, relatively superficial, definitely uncritical biography of Galileo himself, with its only "innovation" being the interwoven portions of his daughter's 124 extant letters. A little background. Galileo had two dau...
So, given the title you'd think this would be about Galileo's daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, who he called "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me." Perhaps you might have thought that through her eyes--this account is partly based upon and includes several o...
After 150 pages I decided if this book didn’t end by smashing the patriarchy, I didn’t want to read anymore. And since it would end in 1642, I gave up. Say what you will about ‘the times,’ it’s impossible to buy the idea that a well-off, well-educated, intelligent and self-respecting public figure c...
Galileo's story was fascinating. I kind of felt like the letters from his daughter were kind of arbitrarily thrown in. They detracted from the presentation of Galileo's life. If Sobel wanted an excuse to show off the translated letters, I wish she would have focused more on Sour Maria Celeste's conv...
really interesting historical stuff about galileo and about science and physics of the time. i was less interested in the stuff about his daughter, but it does seem always somehow surprising to learn about the private lives of famous intellectuals.also, it was interesting to read a book all about s...
Yet more earnest and sincere tosh for us to break teeth onRead by Stella Gonet.Broadcast on:BBC Radio 7, 3:30pm Monday 26th July 2010
Interesting to read about the trials and tribulations of Galileo and his on/off heretical Copernican beliefs. I was less interested in the letters from his daughter though (she always seems to be asking for money – and that put me right off!). Personally would have preferred if it was a more straigh...
Well, it’s really about Galileo. The daughter thing is a hook, and I found that to be the weakest part of the book. Galileo, in this historical memoir, has had three children by a woman not his wife. The daughters are thus unmarriageable, and are sent to a convent. The daughter of the title sends hi...
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