Einstein’s Dreams
- Author Alan Lightman
- Narrator Grover Gardner
- Publisher Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date 19 May 2015
- Run Time 2 hours and 32 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Fiction: general and literary.
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What to expect
In poetic vignettes, Einstein’s Dreams explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.
A modern classic, Einstein’s Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, and people are fated to repeat their triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar.
Translated into thirty languages, Einstein’s Dreams has inspired playwrights, dancers, musicians, and painters all over the world. In poetic vignettes it explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.
Critics Review
u201cIt is at once intellectually provocative and touching and comic and so very beautifully written.u201d
u201cImpressionisticu2026the writing, beautifully simple, conveys better than most texts the strangeness of Einsteinu2019s ideas.u201d
u201cA magical, metaphysical realmu2026Captivating, enchanting, delightful.u201d
u201cLightman is an artist who paints with the notion of time.u201d
u201cEnchanting.u201d
u201cA wonderfully odd, clever, mystical book of meditations on time, poetically spare and delightfully fresh.u201d
u201cMr. Lightman successfully has combined his talents to create an imaginative work that explores the motivations of a great scientist.u201d
u201cEndlessly fascinating. A beguiling inquiry into the not-at-all theoretical, utterly time-tangled, tragic and sublime nature of human life.u201d
u201cA brilliant novel of time in its marvelous flightu2026gorgeous in its writing, spellbinding and profound in its effects.u201d
u201cA beautiful work of fiction that explores the nature of creativityu2026takes you as close as youu2019re likely to get to Einsteinu2019s inner worldu2026Lightman is a wonderful writer.u201d
u201c[An] excellent first novel.u201d
u201cFlawless, meditative, and brilliantu2026A work of hypnotic perception, fluent intelligence, and consummate skill.u201d
u201cFew endeavors are more beguiling than a grossly improbable conceit realized with subtlety and wit. Science writer Lightman seems to have mastered this principle: his slender but substantial fictional debut is a daring re-creation of Einsteinu2019s dreams during May and June 1905u2026Lightmanu2019s speculative prose poem warrants comparison to Calvinou2019s masterful Invisible Cities.u201d
u201cLightman offers provocative and elegantly wrought speculations on the nature of time.u201d
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