Alexander Masters

How could anyone enjoy Cédric Villani’s ‘Birth of a Theorem’? I think I’ve worked it out

Alexander Masters finds a great mathematician’s ‘popular’ book impenetrable from page four

issue 28 February 2015
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  • Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure

    Cédric Villani (translated by Malcolm DeBevoise)

    The Bodley Head, pp. 250

I’ve got a mathematical problem. Birth of a Theorem is by one of the great geniuses of today, a cosmopolitan, liberal-minded man who helps his wife look after their children, likes big-hearted folk songs, welcomes diversity and wears the same jewellery as I do. But as a contribution to the genre of popular maths, the book stinks.

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