Measuring the World
Daniel kehlmann
Quercus, Rs 395

Measuring the world is set in the late eighteenth century at the height of the German Enlightenment. The novel begins with a meeting in Berlin in 1828 between two great German thinkers of the time — Alexander von Humboldt, the explorer and geographer whose travels took him down the Orinoco and into the Amazonian forests, and Carl Friedrich Gauss, the mathematician and astronomer who claims to be the reason why Napoleon decided not to bombard the town of Gottingen. The novel then goes back in time to narrate, in parallel chapters, the adventures of these two original and highly eccentric minds as they attempt to make sense of the world by measuring it in their different ways.

Sound like dry stuff? Not at all. Playful, ironic, and telling an intriguing tale, the novel takes us along Humboldt’s travels (accompanied by captive monkeys, ancient corpses, and a Frenchman who cannot quite believe that he is still a part of this adventure) and Gauss’s numerous amorous liaisons, one of which even had him planning to swallow a bottle of curare and commit suicide.

As we follow Humboldt’s travels, we encounter many strange new creatures along the way: apparitions, cannibals, and a mysterious metallic flying disc which floats above Humboldt and his entourage at one point. As we follow Gauss on his struggle, we see him counting prime numbers when under stress; floating up in a hot-air balloon to discover that parallel lines do meet; and working out the orbit of a new planetoid because he knows that such things, popular with the public, can help him get a job and get married.

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