I posted the original book review because someone was discussing Galois
transforms on the list. I simply though that those people might like to
know of the book.
At 09:35 PM 12/27/98 +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> >From the London Times of December 17, 1998
>>
>> THE FRENCH MATHEMATICIAN
>> By Tom Petsinis
>> Penguin, £7.99 (Fiction)
>> ISBN 0 140 26472 8
>>
>. The book
>> attempts to end the mystery of a difficult loner who, in a twist to gladden
>> the hearts of any plodding schoolboy, was rejected by the now-forgotten
>> mathematical sages
>Hmmm ... Fourier and Liouville who were between the rejecters cannot really be
>regarded as now-forgotten either.
>
>PM
>> of the time on the grounds that he was a no-hoper with
>> silly ideas.
>>
>> It is great subject matter, although newcomers to Galois may get a little
>> lost between fact and fiction, detail and dreams. For while Petsinis creates
>> a lively and convincing portrait, he peppers Galois's life with lengthy and
>> obscure hallucinations, as well as a peculiar habit of talking to his
>> biographer. After reading this version of the life of Galois, one can
>> imagine all too well why the teenage genius had few friends and fewer
patrons.
>>
>> Reviewed by HELEN RUMBELOW for the London Times
>>
>
