Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Saturday, May 27 on orders shipped by Amazon over $25

Or fastest delivery Tuesday, May 23. Order within 16 hrs 42 mins

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon

[{"displayPrice":"$11.48","priceAmount":11.48,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"48","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"2jt%2BzyGE4PnLSw5N9nCWHIw6WenFIKt%2BIl76X1bLA0KGytlFF%2FPzSX0QxCSrqrZgFyv5eXaFWIiWpsJwInhvCc4zzJ3aBbRBowFsbC47VKUStC5Yv45KCtVEfOAEBx5JixkcpWjA98fDWZQLiq0ZwEpsqbf6hlQEABJiA6I7yd70lkd3bm3M2dg2QK7fIZ2e","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$7.50","priceAmount":7.50,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"50","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"2jt%2BzyGE4PnLSw5N9nCWHIw6WenFIKt%2BdpZn8XOa7ufA3dGtEF3FLqjARJHbOrOq%2FxPSya1aTKbZcTsq95hHB3EKisGzVyBN1Hextsq6xtg%2BgPvgy4tBWLpwQ8FlopZNCRhxdb7QxeCFiamo9DSKx%2FYw4snzJ3HFkfodTc8Zj4AUTwMKB2vyGx0bWlAn24gi","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$11.48 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Payment

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

CLARKSM

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Details

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

CLARKSM

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Saturday, May 27 on orders shipped by Amazon over $25

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 24. Order within 16 hrs 42 mins

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by Martistore

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$10.75
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Orion LLC

Added

Not added

$11.49
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: have a happy day

Added

Not added

$11.95
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Book A Smile :-)

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Alan Lightman

Einstein's Dreams Paperback – February 1, 1994

by Alan Lightman (Author)

4.4 2,371 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$45.55

$43.39

$1.38

Paperback, Illustrated

"Please retry"

$14.49

$9.84

$1.15

Paperback, February 1, 1994

$11.48

$5.42

$1.18

MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$15.82

$12.96

—

Kindle
$11.99 Read with Our Free App
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial
Hardcover
$45.55

83 Used from $1.38 9 New from $43.39 4 Collectible from $13.51
Paperback
$11.48

162 Used from $1.18 14 New from $5.42 5 Collectible from $9.99
MP3 CD
$15.82

2 New from $12.96

Purchase options and add-ons

Thirty vignettes take the reader back in time to 1905, when a young patent clerk named Albert Einstein was putting the finishing touches on his theory of relativity. Reprint. 110,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.

Print length

179 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Warner Books
Publication date

February 1, 1994
Dimensions

4.13 x 0.63 x 6.25 inches
ISBN-10

0446670111
ISBN-13

978-0446670111
See all details

Bought Together

Frequently bought together

$11.48

Get it as soon as Saturday, May 27

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Sold by CLARKSM and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.

+

The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew

$15.99

Get it as soon as Saturday, May 27

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science

$25.85

Get it as soon as Saturday, May 27

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Most purchased | Highest ratedin this set of products
Jessie Inchauspe
4,684
Hardcover
$17.92
Lowest Pricein this set of products
Dava Sobel
6,601
Paperback
$11.34
This item:
Alan Lightman
2,371
Paperback
$11.48
Alan Lightman
39
Hardcover
$25.85
Alan Lightman
975
Paperback
$15.99
Alan Lightman
334
Paperback
$14.49
Robert Geroch
57
Paperback
$15.00
Alan Lightman
183
Hardcover
$16.99
Alan Lightman
225
Paperback
$16.00
Jenny Odell
61
Hardcover
$22.99

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you liked the eerie whimsy of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Steven Millhauser's Little Kingdoms, or Jorge Luis Borges's Labyrinths, you will love Alan Lightman's ethereal yet down-to-earth book Einstein's Dreams. Lightman teaches physics and writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, helping bridge the light-year-size gap between science and the humanities, the enemy camps C.P. Snow famously called The Two Cultures.

Einstein's Dreams became a bestseller by delighting both scientists and humanists. It is technically a novel. Lightman uses simple, lyrical, and literal details to locate Einstein precisely in a place and time--Berne, Switzerland, spring 1905, when he was a patent clerk privately working on his bizarre, unheard-of theory of relativity. The town he perceives is vividly described, but the waking Einstein is a bit player in this drama.

The book takes flight when Einstein takes to his bed and we share his dreams, 30 little fables about places where time behaves quite differently. In one world, time is circular; in another a man is occasionally plucked from the present and deposited in the past: "He is agonized. For if he makes the slightest alteration in anything, he may destroy the future ... he is forced to witness events without being part of them ... an inert gas, a ghost ... an exile of time." The dreams in which time flows backward are far more sophisticated than the time-tripping scenes in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, though science-fiction fans may yearn for a sustained yarn, which Lightman declines to provide. His purpose is simply to study the different kinds of time in Einstein's mind, each with its own lucid consequences. In their tone and quiet logic, Lightman's fables come off like Bach variations played on an exquisite harpsichord. People live for one day or eternity, and they respond intelligibly to each unique set of circumstances. Raindrops hang in the air in a place of frozen time; in another place everyone knows one year in advance exactly when the world will end, and acts accordingly.

"Consider a world in which cause and effect are erratic," writes Lightman. "Scientists turn reckless and mutter like gamblers who cannot stop betting.... In this world, artists are joyous." In another dream, time slows with altitude, causing rich folks to build stilt homes on mountaintops, seeking eternal youth and scorning the swiftly aging poor folk below. Forgetting eventually how they got there and why they subsist on "all but the most gossamer food," the higher-ups at length "become thin like the air, bony, old before their time."

There is no plot in this small volume--it's more like a poetry collection than a novel. Like Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, it's a mind-stretching meditation by a scientist who's been to the far edge of physics and is back with wilder tales than Marco Polo's. And unlike many admirers of Hawking, readers of Einstein's Dreams have a high probability of actually finishing it.

From Publishers Weekly

This beguiling first novel--a 16-week PW bestseller--envisions a series of fables about the nature of time that Einstein might have dreamt while putting the final touches on his theory of relativity.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Warner Books; First Edition (February 1, 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 179 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0446670111
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0446670111
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.8 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.13 x 0.63 x 6.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #166,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,304 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #10,943 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 2,371 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Alan Lightman

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Alan Lightman is an American writer, physicist, and social entrepreneur. Born in 1948, he was educated at Princeton and at the California Institute of Technology, where he received a PhD in theoretical physics. He has received five honorary doctoral degrees. Lightman has served on the faculties of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was the first person at MIT to receive dual faculty appointments in science and in the humanities. He is currently professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT. His scientific research in astrophysics has concerned black holes, relativity theory, radiative processes, and the dynamics of systems of stars. His essays and articles have appeared in the Atlantic, Granta, Harper’s, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, Salon, and many other publications. His essays are often chosen by the New York Times as among the best essays of the year. He is the author of 6 novels, several collections of essays, a memoir, and a book-length narrative poem, as well as several books on science. His novel Einstein’s Dreams was an international bestseller and has been the basis for dozens of independent theatrical and musical adaptations around the world. His novel The Diagnosis was a finalist for the National Book Award. His most recent books are The Accidental Universe, which was chosen by Brain Pickings as one of the 10 best books of 2014, his memoir Screening Room, which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the best books of the year for 2016, and Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine (2018), and extended meditation on science and religion. Lightman is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also the founder of the Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to advance a new generation of women leaders in Southeast Asia.”

Photo by Alan Lightman (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

2,371 global ratings

5 star		64%
4 star		19%
3 star		10%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

Translate all reviews to English

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Felix Molina

Le faltaron 4 páginas a mi exemplar. No incluyo las páginas 141 a la 144.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

Buen libro pero le faltaron paginas

Helpful

Translate review to English

Sally

EXCELLENT read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 8, 2023

Verified Purchase

I bought this for my intellectual husband and he LOVED it so much, he said he started reading it more slowly because he didn't want it to end. The writing was wonderful, I'm very happy with this purchase. Highly recommend.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Joseph

Very thought-provoking

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 28, 2010

Verified Purchase

"Einstein's Dreams" is a very thought-provoking novel with chapters representing what might have been the different ways Einstein might have been thinking about time as he developed his thoughts about it leading up to his groundbreaking theories, like....

1. Suppose time is a circle resulting in the world repeating itself - people live their lives over, everything repeats.

2. A world where time is like a flow of water - sometimes lives are transported back in time.

3. A world where time has 3 dimensions just like an object can move in 3 dimensions - horizontal, vertical and longitudinal - so an object/person could participate in 3 different dimensions like having 3 different fates.

4. A world with 2 times, one mechanical - unyielding, pre-determined and one body - makes up its mind as it goes along.

5. A world where time flows slower the further from the center of the earth - likely people would prefer to live in mountains, height being a status.

6. A world where time is visible all over - clocks, watches, bells, etc, time being a reference for everything.

7. A world where cause and effect is erratic - scientists are considered buffoons, artists are joyous.

8. A world where time passes but little happens.

9. A world where the world will end on a specific day - so why learn of the future since everyone has the same fate.

10. A world where time is different in different places - 13th, 15th, 18th centuries for example - the tragedy is that no one is happy since everyone is alone.

11. A world where time brings more order.

12. A world where time stands still then picks up speed as it moves in concentric circles away from the center - sometimes people would like to live in different places.

13. A world with no time, only images.

14. A world with no memory, everything happens for the first time.

15. A world where time flows unevenly - changed plans,unexpected visions, therefore people take fewer risks.

16. A world where all is in motion, a fixation on speed - everyone moves fast so things appear slower.

17.A world where people live just one day - so no time to lose.

18. A world where time flows backwards.

19. A world where time is perceived differently by all.

20. A world where people are either "later" or "nows" - either everything can be postponed or achieved.

21. A world where time is not a quantity but a quality - no clocks, just perceive time by changes of the color of the sky, etc.

22. A world with no future.

23. A world where time is a visible dimension, like births, deaths, trees, etc.

24. A world which stops and starts.

25. A world where watches are not allowed, so there may be some great clock somewhere where people want to be.

26. A world where time is a local phenomenon.

27. A world where time is not fluid, but rigid extending infinitely in different directions.

28. A world where time is like a reflection between mirrors - infinite images.

29. A world with a shifting past - memories are fleeting.

Maybe, just maybe, all these worlds or partial perceptions of them do exist with us - the book does let a reader's mind run with thoughts.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Dreams of Time

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 13, 2005

Verified Purchase

Imagine a world where you know when the world will end. Would you spend the rest of your life reading poetry, making love and taking vacations to exotic locations? Would you work furiously until the last second, when the earth dissolves into raindrops or melts from the heat of the sun? So many questions, so many ideas to turn into dreams of what time could be, what it actually is and what it might be in your future.

As we find ourselves falling into time over the years, time seems to be racing by faster. Imagine a world where time is different for everyone, or is this already true?

Almost every chapter in this book is a dream or a thoughtful consideration. There are moments of sublime beauty and unexpected humor. Visual paradise jumps out from the pages as you read vivid descriptions of worlds where time changes as constantly as the hands on a clock.

Alan Lightman presents a journey into worlds where your life could either repeat in endless cycles or you could live your entire life in a day. The concept of being able to live three lives or more at once sounds wonderful because imagine the goals you could accomplish.

The moment of stunning clarity came to me on page seventy. "There is a place where times stands still. Raindrops hang motionless in air. Pendulums of clocks float mid-swing."

Alan Lightman is an artist with words and paints breathlessly beautiful images. Time could be a flock of birds or a movie rewinding endlessly into eternity past.

After reading Einstein's Dreams you may feel you have lived in a dream. I recognized a number of my own philosophies of life and was amazed by the way Alan Lightman weaves dream-like contemplations into revelations of the philosophy of life itself. The time you spend reading Einstein's Dreams will seem far too short.

This book is 4 ½ x 6 ½ and I recommend the hardcover edition. The cover is beautiful with golden chocolate brown and black backgrounds. The clock is printed in a shiny black ink and is much more impressive than the picture online.

I must say this book impressed me and is much more an imprinting of impressions than a story with a specific plot and developed characters. The dreams of time are the main focus and the exploration of unique words will be exciting to anyone who enjoys climbing out of reality and searching for possibility in worlds of vivid words.

~The Rebecca Review

20 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Great book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

Great rainy day read! A classic.

Helpful

M. Suits

Loved since high school

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

When I was in high school (I’m 42), I randomly found this book on a shelf at Border’s Books. Something about it called to me and after reading the dust jacket I took it home with me. I have always had a difficult time reading due to my ADHD, but I was zeroed in on this one and couldn’t put it down. It expanded my mind more than most books have and I feel in love with it. I gifted it to people over the years but realized this year that I didn’t own it! Now I do. :) And have begun collecting his others, as well.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

John Gossman

Fun, magical thought experiments about Time

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 27, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book consists of many very short stories (a few pages each) about what Time might have been like. In one story, time moves at different speeds according to altitude, and so people move to the mountains to try to live longer. In other stories, Time goes backwards, or at different speeds in different locations, or depending on the direction of motion. Though the author is a physicist, the stories are romantic (in the poetic sense), dreamy, and more magical realism than Einstein's scientific thought experiments.
On warning: I read this book 20 years ago, and looked forward to reading it again. The stories get better. I was disappointed at first, but I think the author is warming the reader up with fairly innocuous tales at first and then more and more fantastic ones. I enjoyed the last half of the book far more than the first.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

SkippyFire

Great read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 1, 2023

Verified Purchase

It’s nice and small so I was able to read the book in one sitting.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Sheena

Dreamy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 2, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is a dreamy book, in fact. It contains many dreamlike worlds, each appearing, existing for a little while, then disappearing like a ship in a misty Turner painting. It is also a thought provoking examination of the nature of time, its relationship with movement and entropy, and its effects on human lives and emotions.

So why have I deducted one star? Because it is more like poetry than a novel. It is beautiful and it is clever, but it doesn't really have a story as such. Reading it was like spending an afternoon daydreaming.

Nevertheless, Einstein's Dreams has been awarded a place on my "read again" shelf, a rare honour. I may edit this review at a later date, when I have read it again, if I find more in it.

One person found this helpful

Sir Furboy

Hard to Get in the UK

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 10, 2009

Verified Purchase

After going to the trouble of importing a copy of this book from America (as it seems to be hard to obtain outside of the US), I was rather disappointed - and perhaps a little clearer as to why its not readily available in the UK!

This book contains a series of dreams of imaginary worlds with a very different conception of time. Each chapter then is a thought experiment - but what I would have liked to see is some theme or character or reason why I should be carried through the thought experiments. There was no binding theme, and thus the book could better have been reduced to a list: Imagine a world where time is like X, Imagine a world where time is like Y and so on.

Maybe a poem on time would have been better than a whole book here.

It was not totally uninteresting, but neither did I feel it greatly profound. reading about Einstein in depth makes you more aware of the profound nature of time. reading popular physics books like "The Elegant Universe" likewise.

Annie Layte

Thought-provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 20, 2015

Verified Purchase

I first read this many years ago when I borrowed it from the library - it really "got inside my head" at the time and I wanted to read it again, so about thirty years after my first encounter with this book, I tracked down the e version for my kindle. It didn't disappoint second time around. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but I found it very thought provoking. It makes you really think about the whole concept of time and wonder how it would affect our behaviour if time behaved differently. If you like this kind of thing, as I do, it is a rivetting read.

5 people found this helpful

El Tel

A delight.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

I found this a delightful book to read. You could say the book follows on where JB Priestley started (Man and Time, et al.) all those years ago.
Don't be misled by the name in the title, but the 'dreams' are ideas and different ways of looking at the subject of time. Some you will have come across before, and many will be thought provoking. I suppose you would say that the writer is showing us different perspectives on how we should be using the allocated time we have been given.

One person found this helpful

Customer

Alright to read once

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 15, 2020

Verified Purchase

Delivery and book state:- (★★★★★ 5 stars)
First of all delivery of book was really quick and all the books I ordered came in a great state and giving 5 stars for seller.

Book review:- (★★ 2 stars )
Collection of dreams (all of them written as diary entries) Einstein had seen while his stay in Berne, Switzerland. Each dream represents a world in reference of time and how it affects lives and emotions of people. Style of writing is very well mannered and clever but after a while this metaphorical references feel pretentious. May be an article of such a kind would have been better than entire book.

See all reviews

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust

Amazon Prime includes:

Buy new: $11.48$11.48 FREE delivery: Saturday, May 27 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon Sold by: CLARKSM

Buy used: $7.50

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Einstein's Dreams Paperback – February 1, 1994

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

What do customers buy after viewing this item?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From Publishers Weekly

Product details

Videos

About the author

Alan Lightman

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$11.48

FREE delivery: Saturday, May 27 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Ships from: Amazon

Sold by: CLARKSM

Buy used:

$7.50