"Wide-ranging and thoroughly winning." --Jordan Ellenberg, The New
York Times Book Review
"An absolute joy to read!" --Steven Levitt, New York Times bestselling
author of Freakonomics
**
For fans of Seven Brief Lessons in Physics, an exploration of the many
ways mathematics can transform our understanding of literature and vice
versa, by the first woman to hold England's oldest mathematical chair.**
We often think of mathematics and literature as polar opposites. But
what if, instead, they were fundamentally linked? In her clear,
insightful, laugh-out-loud funny debut, Once Upon a Prime, Professor
Sarah Hart shows us the myriad connections between math and literature,
and how understanding those connections can enhance our enjoyment of
both.
Did you know, for instance, that Moby-Dick is full of sophisticated
geometry? That James Joyce's stream-of-consciousness novels are
deliberately checkered with mathematical references? That George Eliot
was obsessed with statistics? That Jurassic Park is undergirded by
fractal patterns? That Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie wrote mathematician characters? From sonnets to fairytales to
experimental French literature, Professor Hart shows how math and
literature are complementary parts of the same quest, to understand
human life and our place in the universe.
As the first woman to hold England's oldest mathematical chair,
Professor Hart is the ideal tour guide, taking us on an unforgettable
journey through the books we thought we knew, revealing new layers of
beauty and wonder. As she promises, you're going to need a bigger
bookcase.
