Hardcover
$14.30

Paperback
$20.54

$20.54

FREE International Returns

No Import Fees Deposit & $12.96 Shipping to France Details

Delivery Friday, August 16

Or fastest delivery Monday, August 12. Order within 14 hrs

Deliver to France

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$20.54 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

Shop Aztro

Sold by

Shop Aztro

Returns

30-day refund/replacement

Returnable	Yes
Resolutions	Eligible for refund or replacement
Return Window	30 days from delivery
Refund Timelines	Typically, an advance refund will be issued within 24 hours of a drop-off or pick-up. For returns that require physical verification, refund issuance may take up to 30 days after drop-off or pick up. Where an advance refund is issued, we will re-charge your payment method if we do not receive the correct item in original condition. See details here.
Late fee	A late fee of 20% of the item price will apply if you complete the drop off or pick up after the ‘Return By Date’.
Restocking fee	A restocking fee may apply if the item is not returned in original condition and original packaging, or is damaged or missing parts for reasons not due to Amazon or seller error. See details here.

Returns

30-day refund/replacement

Returnable	Yes
Resolutions	Eligible for refund or replacement
Return Window	30 days from delivery
Refund Timelines	Typically, an advance refund will be issued within 24 hours of a drop-off or pick-up. For returns that require physical verification, refund issuance may take up to 30 days after drop-off or pick up. Where an advance refund is issued, we will re-charge your payment method if we do not receive the correct item in original condition. See details here.
Late fee	A late fee of 20% of the item price will apply if you complete the drop off or pick up after the ‘Return By Date’.
Restocking fee	A restocking fee may apply if the item is not returned in original condition and original packaging, or is damaged or missing parts for reasons not due to Amazon or seller error. See details here.

Return instructions

Item must be in original condition and packaging along with tag, accessories, manuals, and inserts. Unlock any electronic device, delete your account and remove all personal information.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

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

Details

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$4.33

Slight signs of wear on the cover. Ammareal gives back up to 15% of this book's net price to charity organizations. Slight signs of wear on the cover. Ammareal gives back up to 15% of this book's net price to charity organizations. See less

$6.99 delivery August 8 - 19. Details

Deliver to France

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$20.54 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Ships from and sold by Ammareal - Professional seller.

Add to List

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (17) from $6.21

Follow the author

David Leavitt

Follow

The Indian Clerk: A Novel Paperback – September 16, 2008

by David Leavitt (Author)

4.0 167 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$20.54","priceAmount":20.54,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"20","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"54","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"ML0q7ikzmDGy6SlxK7Z%2BLqnRGnFu2gkB1BNpe8oscUuBa3WYRoM30u1t%2F9tNdbvrqZa97FdFj2LoibP%2F0P7GuaH3R11FjIOIYWD0OOxoI9DGAVTYQ9sIgrgo56QwQoUR9bmhHPJ43sRbidg96POtMY8OQ%2Ftngr13tsayuO1wcguJ0ilgpkZiGGjBapR23eND","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$4.33","priceAmount":4.33,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"4","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"33","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"ML0q7ikzmDGy6SlxK7Z%2BLqnRGnFu2gkB1%2FHkhe6VGGAq7rNNy9xx0ewyrvcoimvkDj3XMUszSlkZjvFwuzqyXsDnYA%2FfZK88c2H0PWZzpnyHzQeWY3J1ADfyOzoHTUb64Z%2FzcYW9NI1UZyjulP6Sx7GsFcmkymAOx8XwSsSXod9%2FGWCbFtY5DXuT%2F8huj3ho","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Based on the remarkable true story of G. H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan, and populated with such luminaries such as D. H. Lawrence, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Indian Clerk takes this extraordinary slice of history and transforms it into an emotional and spellbinding story about the fragility of human connection and our need to find order in the world. A literary masterpiece, it appeared on four bestseller lists, including the Los Angeles Times, and received dazzling reviews from every major publication in the country.

Print length

496 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bloomsbury USA
Publication date

September 16, 2008
Dimensions

5.48 x 1.32 x 8.34 inches
ISBN-10

1596910410
ISBN-13

978-1596910416
See all details

David Leavitt
243
Hardcover
$12.94
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Aug 13
$12.96 shipping
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
David Leavitt
157
Hardcover
$16.19
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Aug 13
$12.65 shipping
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
David Leavitt
78
Paperback
$11.73
E. M. Forster
46
Paperback
$12.33
$11.51 shipping
David Leavitt
167
Hardcover
$14.30
Get it as soon as Friday, Aug 16
$14.64 shipping
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
David Leavitt
25
Paperback
21 offers from $1.24

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Leavitt's fiction has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Prize, the National Book Critics' Circle Award and the LA Times Fiction Prize, and shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker,the New York Times, Harper's and Vogue, among other publications. He lives in Gainesville, Florida, where he is Professor of English at the University of Florida and edits the literary magazine Subtropics.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA; Reprint edition (September 16, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1596910410
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1596910416
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.48 x 1.32 x 8.34 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,959,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #131,525 in American Literature (Books)
- #150,757 in Historical Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.0 167 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.

David Leavitt

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

167 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Customers say

Customers find the plot interesting, wonderful, and beautifully written. They also describe the reading experience as engaging and fascinating. However, some customers feel the characters aren't well developed.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

Reading experience Writing style Plot Emotional impact Characters

11 customers mention "Reading experience"11 positive0 negative

Customers find the book wonderful, compelling, and gorgeously written. They also say it's based on real events and an amazing job to make a novel out of it.

"...A number of people (including myself) thought that the novel was a good read and historical piece although it had problems...." Read more

"...The language is beautiful. Just gorgeously written and an amazing job to make a novel out of mathematics, something that really challenges me to..." Read more

""The Indian Clerk" is the most wonderful book, a fascinating look at World War I life and culture - a time quite similar to our own...." Read more

"...It is an easy read, but very enjoyable." Read more

11 customers mention "Writing style"11 positive0 negative

Customers find the writing style engaging, beautifully written, and fascinating.

"...Sometimes this is a little jarring but, on a whole, Leavitt's writing is beautiful and poetic and often very touching...." Read more

"...The reader profits in two ways from this book as it is an elegantly literate novel, and it provides a great deal of accurate information about these..." Read more

"...The language is beautiful. Just gorgeously written and an amazing job to make a novel out of mathematics, something that really challenges me to..." Read more

""The Indian Clerk" is the most wonderful book, a fascinating look at World War I life and culture - a time quite similar to our own...." Read more

10 customers mention "Plot"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the plot interesting, providing rich personal background to many of the people there at the time. They also describe the book as a good read and historical piece.

"...There are fascinating intellectual, emotional, and spiritual elements to his story which Leavitt has drawn upon very effectively in his book...." Read more

"...it thought that it was "novelistic," that is, a good combination of slowly revealing plot and character and historical events, although it was hard..." Read more

"...is superbly written, the prose is elegant, and the story holds your attention throughout...." Read more

"I found this book quite compelling, one of the most compelling books of fiction I've read in a while...." Read more

3 customers mention "Emotional impact"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the emotional impact fascinating, with intellectual, emotional, and spiritual elements.

"...There are fascinating intellectual, emotional, and spiritual elements to his story which Leavitt has drawn upon very effectively in his book...." Read more

"...rich and varied as it sounds, the book is truly a page turner, full of heart and life." Read more

"...He captured the feelings of joy and wonder that I felt when I discovered the calculus...." Read more

3 customers mention "Characters"0 positive3 negative

Customers find the characters in the book not well developed.

"...character and historical events, although it was hard to emotionally connect with the characters, who had repressed Victorian personalities and were..." Read more

"...Some reviewers have indicated that the characters weren't well developed, but I feel the exact opposite...." Read more

"...The book is egregiously unfair to all its protagonists, and particularly offensive in its depiction of Alice Neville...." Read more

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

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

Harris M.

An very rich book, and successful, book

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2010

Verified Purchase

I will not attempt to improve upon the descriptions of the book that others have provided. I will say that Mr. Leavitt may have done a himself, and the reader, a small disservice by titling the book The Indian Clerk, insofar as the title seems to promise a story of and about Ramanujan. Instead, Leavitt uses Ramanujan to provide the book's unifying framework: the book is really about a time and a place (Cambridge before and during WW 1) while trying to tie together important ideas about cultures colliding and complex people whose lives change forever (or, in some cases, don't change at all) as they cope with love, separation, war, longing, desire and the life of the mind (including, of course, mathematics). Leavitt uses a particularly challenging device--the unreliable narrator (Hardy)--through whose eyes we see Ramanujan and dozens of other characters, places and events. And to make things more complicated, Hardy's own perception changes over time so that the story unfolds on many levels simultaneously.

Leavitt does not always succeed but the fact that he mostly succeeds is simply marvelous. Leavitt has faithfully recreated the world in which Ramanujan lived for several years while being faithful to the people, the places and ideas that are the subject for the novel.

Don't read this book if you want a historical novel that will hand you "Ramanujan" in one piece. By the time you put the book down, however, you will know "Ramanujan", and the world he lived in, very well, indeed.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

AngelCake

Engaging read and beautifully written

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2012

Verified Purchase

I have always been fascinated by Ramanujan, the barely literate and impoverished Indian peon with the original beautiful mind. There are fascinating intellectual, emotional, and spiritual elements to his story which Leavitt has drawn upon very effectively in his book. This is a more intimate and fictionalized account of the relationship between Ramanujan and Hardy than, say, "The Man who knew infinity." The emphasis is clearly more on storytelling than on biography.

Hardy's homosexual tendencies, indeed the almost casual homosexual relationships which seemed to exist among the various intellectual luminaries of the day in Cambridge, have a prominent place in the narrative. Sometimes this is a little jarring but, on a whole, Leavitt's writing is beautiful and poetic and often very touching. He converts the historical figures in the story into actual characters with whom we can sympathize and identify.

The initially awkward but ultimately tender interactions depicted between Ramanujan and Alice Neville are rendered with a nice deft touch. However her clumsy attempt at seducing him seemed unconvincing and out-of-character, and is probably meant as pure fiction - as are Hardy's dalliances with an injured soldier. Nevertheless I can see how these incidents are meant to throw both Hardy's and Alice's essential loneliness into stark relief, and this is important in understanding their respective roles in Ramanujan's life. Alice's subtle jealously of Hardy's relationship with Ramanujan and her life-long bitterness for what she perceives as Hardy's fault in bringing about Ramanujan's early death are very well conveyed. I also liked Leavitt's explanation for the cause of Ramanujan's death - it seemed plausible to me. The stories of the secondary characters such as Littlewood and his mistress were also interesting and enriched the narrative.

I thought the mathematical component was just right without being overdone and alienating for lay readers, but I must confess I missed the part where 9 is referred to as a prime number. Hopefully that egregious error has been fixed in my Kindle version.

All in all, I really enjoyed the book - both the writing and the storytelling were very evocative. If Hollywood ever decides to make a movie about Ramanujan, they could do worse than to use Leavitt's book as their source material.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

H. Williams

NYC LGBT group offered mixed reviews, but those who hated it were vehement

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2009

Verified Purchase

At the November 2009 meeting, the NYC LGBT Center book discussion group had a very nice sized group that read "The Indian Clerk" by David Leavitt.

The discussion was interesting. A number of people (including myself) thought that the novel was a good read and historical piece although it had problems. A number of readers hated hated hated the novel and the author's inability to connect with his characters or readers. (Needless to say, I don't think we'll be reading any more David Leavitt in the near future.) I think that those of us who rather liked it thought that it was "novelistic," that is, a good combination of slowly revealing plot and character and historical events, although it was hard to emotionally connect with the characters, who had repressed Victorian personalities and were only interested in numbers.

Those who didn't like it thought that the writing was flat, the unlikeable characters unmotivated, and the historical period not illuminated by the too-many events depicted (such as the appearances of famous individuals at Trinity and the Great War). I think that we all agreed that some of minor characters with more imagined stories - rather than historically accurate stories - were better. I'm thinking of Littlewood's mistress, Anne Chase, and Alice Neville, who falls in love with Ramanujan.

So this was a very mixed evening of reviews, but I was surprised by the vehemence of the bad reviews.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Khanindra Chowdhury

TO EXPLORE UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT RAMANUJAN'S LIFE..

Reviewed in India on February 3, 2023

Verified Purchase

WE'LL TRY TO BRING A SHORT VERSION OF THE SAME IN MY OWN MOTHER TONGUE

Saagar

Captures the time and place most brilliantly!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2016

Verified Purchase

I felt compelled to write this review now even though I purchased and read the book all the way back in 2008!

This book was recently made into a film (The Man who Knew Infinity) and whilst the film is excellent, as with most things, the book really is a fantastic read and I think better than the screen adaptation. Similar to books such as 'Devil in the White City', this is a fictional book about factual people and set around factual events. It tells the unlikely story of a post room clerk from India who spends his free time teaching himself maths from old text books. By discovering answers to unknown/as yet unsolved proofs and sending them to G.H.Hardy at Cambridge, he is brought over to the UK by Hardy. The book contains other well known academics such as Bertrand Russel and J.M Keynes and you really do gain a sense of the time and place that these significant events occurred in.

Amazon Customer

Well written and easily read. An enjoyable and informative look at at ...

Reviewed in Canada on November 30, 2014

Verified Purchase

Well written and easily read. An enjoyable and informative look at at academia in Britain as old Europe and it's colonies begin to crumble.

2 people found this helpful

Paula Rigues

The Indian clerk. David Leavitt

Reviewed in Spain on November 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

Falta calidad literaria. Está lleno de arquetipos que no convencen. Se pierde interés a medida que avanza la narración. No llegué a terminarlo

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

Philip Radford

Three Stars

Reviewed in Australia on January 4, 2015

Verified Purchase

a bit too long worded

See more reviews

Price		$20.54
AmazonGlobal Shipping		$12.96
Estimated Import Fees Deposit		$0.00

Total		$33.50

Return this item for free

Shipping & Fee Details

Return instructions

Return instructions

Image Unavailable

Follow the author