Perfect Demonstration Of How A Biography Should Be Written

books:


	• The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan Robert Kanigel Washington Square Press, 1991 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 54 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

IT WAS A GIFT

I bought this book for my brother as a Christmas gift. I cannot tell you from my personal experience, but my brother read it and told me it was a wonderful book.

A perfect Indian Student story

A very very good read....... Ramanujans story still has relevance even after almost a 100 years. The images of colonial Madras and England before the war are very desciptive and well researched. In all one of the best books I have ever read.

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LIFE TO INFINITY

MISFORTUNE AND GENIUS ARE TOO OFTEN INTERTWINE.STARTING LIFE IN THE INDIAN CASTE SYSTEM IS CERTAINLY A BURDEN FOR ANY GENIUS (MAHATMA GANDHI DENOUNCED THE CASTE SYSTEM).DOWN IN SOUTHERN INDIA AMONG THE MULTITUDES ONE NEEDS A PRODIGIOUS MIND TO ASCEND FROM SUCH A DIFFICULT ROOTAGE.HOW CAN YOU READ OF THIS MAN AND NOT BE THRILLED WITH THE STARS OF INSPIRATION? HERE IS A SALUTE TO THE BRITS FOR SHOWING THE WORLD THIS NUMERICAL PUNDIT.

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very good book

Interesting book on the life and times of the math genius Ramanujan. I found the book also interesting as it gave a peek about the world and India during the early 1900s. The author did a great job in researching about Ramanujan, really makes a great effort to take the reader back to those times.

Perfect Demonstration Of How A Biography Should Be Written

As some of the other reviewers have pointed out, Kanigel does not dwell much on Ramanujan's mathematics. However, this is a spectacularly outstanding biography (this is not an exaggeration, believe me). Anyone who reads this book cover to cover will 'know' Ramanujan as well as they know their best friend. The many sides of this prodigy's personality - his affinity for mysticism, his need for public approbation, his gentle good nature - are all expertly transmitted. The tragedy of a life cut short at the height of its productivity will be felt keenly even by the 'toughest' of readers. Kanigel deserves high praise indeed for the masterly way he evokes time and place: Southern India and Cambridge (England) during 1900-20. If it were possible to award 6 stars, I would have done that.
A few further points: 1) Kanigel's decision to give G. H. Hardy equal importance (almost) as Ramanujan is a strength of this book, not a drawback. This decision adds much richness to the narrative. 2) Kanigel returns to one question repeatedly: What is 'genius' and where does it come from? He succeeds in getting the reader to wonder along with him. There is probably no (one) good answer, but a life such as Ramanujan's should lead one to ponder this deeply. 3) I wish that in a future edition Kanigel would include an appendix, with some of the more accessible of Ramanujan's mathematical formulae. I am sure that any one of the 'gang of three' Ramanujan specialists (George Andrews, Richard Askey, and Bruce Berndt) would help him with this if he requested. The biography is superb, as already stated, but this would be dessert for those readers who have a mathematical background.

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