Customer Reviews

The French Mathematician

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I would highly recommend "The French Mathematician" to fans of math, french history and even those who could care less about math.

This book follows Galois' discovery of his talents in mathematics and the conflicts in France that make him decide if he will follow his genius and study math, or join the revoultion for democracy in France.

This book is well written and is full of wonderful imagery that puts you right in revolutionary France. I would guess that most people could understand the passion for democracy that the characters in the book have, but this book also helps you understand Galois' passion for mathematics.

Petsinis takes a very interesting topic -- the short career and life of boy-genius Evariste Galois -- and surrounds it with flowery mathematical language. Probably the most interesting narrative ideas are presented in the first, er, Chapter Zero, but similar attempts later in the book are nearly incomprehensible. By then, Evariste has determined to make himself a martyr for the Revolution, a much drier concept then dying for mathematics. As his Republican comrades complain, Evariste becomes tiresome.

Nevertheless, I have picked up a couple of books on mathematical history: the politics of France at the time of Galois and the politics of academic mathematics are fascinating.

I have been interested in the life of Evariste Galois for some years now so I was delighted to find this book. Galois was a brilliant French mathematician, who may or may not have suffered from some form of epilepsy or depression and who, sadly, was killed under mysterious circumstances at the young age of twenty.

Galois' life is cloaked in mystery. We do know that he dreamed of solving the quintic, a complex mathematical equation that had eluded all the best minds of his time. He was the first person to formulate the concept of a finite group theory and then to apply this theory to solve one of the major mathematical problems of his era.

Although Galois seemed to live for pure mathematics and pure mathematics alone, he mysteriously gave up his feverish study to devote most of his time to the revolution that took place in France in 1830. Why Galois, who seemingly had little interest in politics, would brandish a knife and threaten the king, in front of Alexandre Dumas, no less, forms the basis for much of this book.

In this book, we learn of a most important letter Galois wrote on the night of May 29, 1832 to his friend, Auguste Chevalier. What we don't learn about, and what has been lost to history, are Galois' other manuscripts and, most interestingly, his brief love affair with Stéphanie du Motel. We also know that Galois fully expected to die when he did, but what we don't know is why he died or why, precisely, he expected his death to come about exactly as it did.

You certainly don't have to be a mathematician to love this book. You really don't even need much of an interest in math. Galois is such a compelling character that he makes a wonderful character study no matter what he was interested in. This book, aimed at the general reader, does not dwell unnecessarily on mathematical concepts and even when it does, it does so in such a way that it only adds beauty to the narrative and depth to the character of Galois.

Petsinis seems much more interested in capturing the psychological essence of Galois than in cataloging his mathematical and political conquests and, in my opinion, he succeeds wonderfully. This is a beautiful book and one that is a joy to read. Petsinis worked a seeming miracle in weaving the actual events in the life of Galois into his fictional narrative. We are left with nothing but the belief that Petsinis' Galois is the real Galois; that these were his thoughts and his feelings and his reasons for being.

Galois struggled with his emotions for most of his twenty years and Petsinis lets us feel this struggle. For example, Galois, even though being mesmerized by the enchanting du Motel, had an intrinsic aversion to both sex and romance. He was a genius par excellence, yet he was a dreamer as well, and sometimes this dreaminess would cause him to slip from the factual world of the mathematics he loved into a horrific fantasy world of which he wanted no part.

The life of Evariste Galois makes for a very difficult character study, but Petsinis has done a marvelous job. The French Mathematician is one of the most gorgeous books I have ever read and it makes one of the world's true geniuses so much more accessible. Evariste Galois led a grand but tragic life and Petsinis captures it in all its glory in this lyrical and beautifully written book.

-- but almost nothing of Galois the mathematician.

Galois founded a branch of math that still bears his name, the study of Galois fields. They're in use everywhere today, from the nearest cell phone or DVD to the most distant interplanetary probe. But the book barely mentions his mathematical achievements and certainly doesn't describe them, so let's move along.

Galois himself has all the makings of a great romantic figure. It's a matter of historical fact that was mathematical prodigy, with important work published during his short life. It's also true that he died in a duel at age 21, after spending his final night organizing his mathematical notes for posterity. That, plus simply living through a time of intense political upheaval, let alone being involved in it, makes him a character quite able to capture the imagination. Petsinis' imagination has been quite completely captivated.

If anything, there may be a bit too much imagination in this rendering of Galois' life. It's told in the first person, from Galois' own point of view, for which historical justification is thin at best. With so little fact at hand, Petsinis has created a wildly emotional character. In this presentation, Galois seemed quite incapable of moderation in any feeling, driven continually between white-hot intensity and blackest depression. Every page seemed to sizzle with overheated passion for math, for his politics, for his family, or for what he had for breakfast - I was tempted to set an ice pack on the book more than once.

Given all that was obviously fabricated in the cause of a good story, I'm not sure how much to trust any of the other facts that might have historical reality. How much was his mathematical career actually affected by perceptions of his politics? The paranoid view here suggests that the mathematical establishment conspired to create a wall of silence around the firebrand's work during his lifetime. On the whole, inertia and absent-mindedness look like equally good explanations.

I find this a fair (if wildly expressive) novel, a questionable biography, and a disappointing tribute to the mathematician and his mathematical achievements. It is very tempting to romanticize Galois the man, and Petsinis has fallen completely for that temptation.

//wiredweird

Reading the story told in 1st person about the tragic life of Galois, there were few persons who contributed to Galois's misfortune:

1. Cauchy whose selfishness to block Galois's papers 'intentionally';
2. Poisson whose ignorance caused Galois's total disappointment in academia, pushed him to the fire of revolution;
3. Ecole Polytechnique's CONCOURS Entrance Examiners who failed Galois for 2 years;
4. Ecole Normale Superieure Director who expelled Galois;
5. The Jesuit who caused his father's suicide;
6. The coquette french lady who used Galois to make her Fiancee jealous, which led to the fatal duel.

It is ironical that Ecole Normale Sup is now the highest Math institution in France, apologized for the mistake of expelling Galois only after 100 years.

'X' (Ecole Polytechnique's nick name) produced the Group Theory only 14 years after Galois's death.

One important person in Galois Math career was his teacher Louis Richard from Lycee Louis-le-Grand. 20 years later Richard produced another great mathematician Charles Hermite (proved e transcendental), whose German student Lindermann (proved pi transcendental) was the 'ancestor' of German Gottingen mathematicians. Funny thing was Hermite entered 'X' as last student, passed by a thin line, almost repeated Galois's failure - Hermite was asked to quit after 1 year in 'X' !

Conclusion: The Concours (Entrance Exams) could not detect Math genius ! Today the 'bloody' Concours still exits in France as fierce competition entering to the elite Grandes Ecoles (the prestigious 'X' still being the toughest). How many more young genius like Galois will the Concours be denying outside the wall of Math ?

This fictionalized account of mathematician Evariste Galois's life ushers us directly and intimately into the mind of one whose discoveries continue to influence present-day nuclear physics and genetic engineering.

Having had his early education at home under the tutelage of his literary-minded mother, fifteen-year-old Evariste Galois is sent to Paris to complete his education. A sensitive, arrogant genius, he detests the school, the teachers, and all the other students. Then he is exposed to mathematics for the first time and knows he has found that thing that so few of us ever do: his calling. To Evariste, mathematics is its own reward, a refuge of logic in a chaotic world. It is the key to unlock the secrets of the universe. It is a new and superior religion. He vows he will be the first to solve the quintic, a complex equation that has confounded many great minds.

There are obstacles in his path to this goal. First, he must struggle to suppress his own emerging sexuality. Then, there are the schoolmates who continually goad and harass him to join their Republican groups. Less easily ignored are the grievous social inequities and turmoil surrounding him. When his father dies, an alleged suicide, Evariste at last begins to question his singular devotion to mathematics.

Evariste tells his own story, addressing himself to an imaginary biographer who shadows him throughout the book, experiencing events as he does, all in present tense. While this type of narration can be off-putting, Petsinis utilizes it respectably and often with great drama. He adeptly conveys to the reader information that the self-absorbed and oblivious protagonist himself misses. Petsinis's prose is rich with original and evocative metaphors and similes, and his flair for verb choice gives the story a distinctively realistic feel.

Egotistical and insolent, Evariste is difficult to like at the outset. Yet the reader soon glimpses the fragile and idealistic heart of an insecure young man possessed of remarkable mental gifts. As the story unfolds, the reader comes to understand the noble soul of Evariste Galois -- his consuming desire to give his life to a meaningful cause and to attain immortality through his work.

There are many types of genius - obscure genius like that of the mathematician Ramanujan which defies analysis, persistent genius like JS Bach who produced an endless stream of inspired work through his long life, blocked genius like that of Einstein who produced a work of unquestionable genius but then - despite his qualities of innovation and analysis - was unable to progress with his next major theory through a significant period of his life (of course, no-one else has yet managed to achieve what he attempted). And the absent-minded professor is such an archetype. But Galois - the subject of this novel - shows himself to be the distracted genius. What could he have achieved if he had been supported properly by his peers - mentored as Ramanujan was? What might he have achieved if he had lived in a more stable political environment?

I enjoyed this novel although at times I thought it was a little long for the story it was telling. And Galois was depicted as such an unattractive self-assured but doubting person. I particularly didn't like his attitude towards people - especially women - as portrayed in the novel, anyway. It seemed that the negative in human behaviour had such a powerful influence that the positive - and surely he must have encountered some - was swept aside. But that would lead to, say, never eating an orange because one day one came across a bad one.

But I do have a philosophical objection to what this novel is - or isn't. Although I was attracted to the idea of dramatising the life of a mathematician because I believe it is imperative that we overcome the cultural acceptance of an inability to do mathematics - even a pride in not being asble to do mathematics - that seems to be all around me. And one step in this direction is to put people back into the subject. Who were Cauchy and Poisson whose names are attached to theorems and processes - and all the others so named. Cauchy and Poisson I mention because they are minor characters in 'The French Mathematician', and I hope Mr Petsinis has not done them an injustice with the bad press he has given them.

In 2000 I attended a seminar in Orlando, Florida. My wife and I took our two young boys (aged 4 and 6) with us so that they could experience some of the States, including, of course, Disneyland and Universal Studios. But later, when we reached NASA, we had to try and assure tham that this was real - not just another theme park. And then NASA undid the good work by showing a 3D movie of life in a space station - in the next century. Reality was confused with make believe again. What does this have to do with 'The French Mathemtician'? Well, it seems to me that the historic novel as this is - it is not history, a biography - is rather like a theme park. It does have elements of the real but these are so buried in the author's imagining that it becomes difficult to determine what is reality, how close the imagining comes to the way things really were. I enjoyed reading Mr Petsinis' realisation of the life of Galois and I hope I have a proper perspective on the man's life, and the times he lived in, but I do have doubts.

One word of advice for people who might read this novel hoping to also get some insights into Evariste Galois's mathematics - there is no mathematics in this novel.

I'm going to tell you like it is:

I went in with the information given by ET Bell when reading about this curious character and came out of this book wondering what the hell? I looked on the back of the book - fiction. Thank God. Founding a religion on X? I had to check because some people are actually that crazy.

Tom runs wild with imagination with Evariste Galois. It's a nice story for the most part, but there are some parts in this book where you just sit and wonder if Petsinis was bored, drunk, or a combination of the two when writing some of the stuff in the book.