The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (Compass)

The result is a unique master work, in which you feel you get to know Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo as well as their classical predecessors. The science is explained as are the dead ends, and some harsh judgements made: Koestler was not timid! He also succeeds is putting the discoveries into context, as the standard against which scientific discovery has come to be measured.

Though I studied this in high school physics, this is what truly made this period come alive for me. I will reread this for years to come.


Koestler is brilliant   October 4, 2002
Robert Adler (Santa Rosa, CA USA)
37 out of 39 found this review helpful

Arthur Koestler was one of the most remarkable intellects of the twentieth century. In the course of his life and career he experienced and wrote about most of the great movements and changes of his times. Typically, he perceived patterns long before others, inevitably with a truly unique understanding, and wrote about them beautifully.

In The Sleepwalkers, Koestler traced what he thought to be the mainstream of the development of science through exquisitely researched and written biographies of some of science's leading figures. There's no part of the book that isn't well worth reading, but I think that his treatments of Copernicus and Kepler are hair-raisingly insightful.

Readers can confidently expect to put down The Sleepwalkers with increased knowledge and new insights about the history of science and the stellar figures Koestler describes. Still, don't expect a quick read. Koestler thinks and writes in depth, and takes the time to guide readers where he wants to take them.

Robert Adler
Science Writer
Author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (John Wiley & Sons, 2002, ISBN 0471401749).


A definitive history of Cosmology   March 18, 2002
Ashwin (Bangalore, India)
33 out of 35 found this review helpful

This is book on the history of cosmology - make no mistake. It tries to illustrate Koestlers masterly thesis in the epilogue on the nature of genius and creativity, and the path of scientific progress. The example he uses is the history of cosmology. Having begun his book so, and paying attention to this mode of thought in the introduction, Koestler soon sets down to business

He begins with the Pythagorean brotherhood and delves a little into the man that Pythagoras was, and speaks of the contributions of Plato and Aristotle in this arena. So rigid is Koestlers focus, that this is perhaps the first book which speaks of Plato and Aristotle with reference to only their works in astronomy and completely ignores Socrates, who had no contribution to this field. The book neglects more ancient theories and incorrect faiths. Rather it concentrates with laserlike intensity on the people who made the Science what it is, namely Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler and Galileo. Once we are through with the Greeks and the intermittent period, the book rapidly moves into a breathtaking narrative, almost biographical, about these giants, on whose shoulder Newton stood and saw further.

Koestler also brings to the reader correspondence and definitive evidence that debunks most of scientific history into the realm of folklore, and shows how different a path cosmological studies have taken. He debunks many old viewpoints and theories and shows the true history of science to be very different. He ends with Newtons arrival on the scene, and leaves us begging for more

In his epilogue, Koestler returns to his construct on sleepwalking and the nature of genius, and in a masterly flourish, the book suddenly picks up pace like never before, and ends leaving the reader wanting to read it all again!

Quite simply a must read, and a must-have book for any book lover


richly rewarding tour of historical views of the universe   October 13, 1997
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

This is one of the most richly rewarding books I have ever read. It succeeds on several levels: as a history of the science of astronomy; as a series of very human biographies of the visionary astronomers who made landmark discoveries; and mostly as a brilliant discussion of the evolution of human thought as it comes to grips with the infinite. Koestler has a ferocious intellect-- the reader can almost warm his hands by the glow-- which he uses to illuminate and find meaning in a series of challenging topics. For me, this was a truly magic book, beautifully written.


Everyone should read it   January 8, 2003
Professor Joseph L. McCauley (Austria+Texas)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Fascinating account of the history of astronomy through the discovery of classical mechanics by Kepler, Galileo and Newton. We may see it as the history of the replacement of religious-based dogmatism by what physicists today call the Galilean approach: the discovery and consequent mathematical description of nature throughy repeated, identical experiments or observations. This is the book that wheted my appetite for the history of physics. For the serious reader, there are also Julian Barbour's Absolute or Relative Motion and Fred Hoyle's history of Copernicus's contribution. Of interest as well, if less exciting, are Galileo's Dialogues.