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In Search of Sir Thomas Browne: The Life and Afterlife of the Seventeenth Century's Most Inquiring Mind Hardcover – Deckle Edge, June 15, 2015

3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
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The extraordinary life and ideas of one of the greatest―and most neglected―minds in history.

Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) was an English writer, physician, and philosopher whose work has inspired everyone from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Jorge Luis Borges, Virginia Woolf to Stephen Jay Gould. In an intellectual adventure like Sarah Bakewell's book about Montaigne, How to Live, Hugh Aldersey-Williams sets off not just to tell the story of Browne's life but to champion his skeptical nature and inquiring mind.

Mixing botany, etymology, medicine, and literary history, Aldersey-Williams journeys in his hero's footsteps to introduce us to witches, zealots, natural wonders, and fabulous creatures of Browne's time and ours. We meet Browne the master prose stylist, responsible for introducing hundreds of words into English, including electricity, hallucination, and suicide. Aldersey-Williams reveals how Browne’s preoccupations―how to disabuse the credulous of their foolish beliefs, what to make of order in nature, how to unite science and religion―are relevant today.

In Search of Sir Thomas Browne is more than just a biography―it is a cabinet of wonders and an argument that Browne, standing at the very gates of modern science, remains an inquiring mind for our own time. As Stephen Greenblatt has written, Browne is "unnervingly one of our most adventurous contemporaries."

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    June 15, 2015
  5. Dimensions
    6.7 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780393241648
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393241648
  8. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A delightful portrait."
― Jim Holt, New York Times Book Review

"[F]ascinating…. [A] cleverly constructed and amusing book, on a subject deserving of fresh attention."
― Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal

"A triumph. With humour, humility and intelligent generosity, Aldersey-Williams brings Sir Thomas Browne splendidly to life, urns and all."
― Financial Times (UK)

"Engaging and thoughtful…. Like some of the most compelling biographers, Aldersey-Williams partly inhabits his subject."
― Literary Review (UK)

"Superb…. Aldersey-Williams has produced not a standard biography but a fascinating genre-bending melange of life story, medicine, science and human culture…. With luck this fine tribute will bring Browne the wider readership he richly deserves."
― Sunday Herald (UK)

"This is just the kind of celebration Sir Thomas Browne needs and deserves: not a conventional biography but a meditation filled with intellectual curiosity, tolerance, humane observation, and gentle wit. It shows Browne as a man caught in the currents of his times while musing on timeless questions―and, like Aldersey-Williams, determined to weigh up the evidence without dogmatism, and to enjoy the richness of the world."
― Philip Ball

"A wonderfully erratic, promenading book, in which we see how different, yet how similar we still are today to that most serene, most enigmatic science pioneer and literary master, Sir Thomas Browne, whose prose style is one of the highest peaks in English literature, according to Borges and to my humble self."
― Javier Marías

"[T]he intellectual equivalent of a buddy road trip."
― Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

About the Author

Hugh Aldersey-Williams is the author of many books, including The Tide, Anatomies, Periodic Tales, and The Most Beautiful Molecule, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in Norfolk, England.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0393241645
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (June 15, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780393241648
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393241648
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.46 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.7 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

About the author

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Hugh Aldersey-Williams

Hugh Aldersey-Williams

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My latest book is Dutch Light: Christiaan Huygens and the Making of Science in Europe, which won the Samuel Pepys Award in 2021. Huygens was the greatest scientist working in the vital period between Galileo and Newton, when the scientific revolution was gathering pace. He discovered Saturn's ring, invented the accurate pendulum clock, and devised a wave theory of light far ahead of its time.

More even than Newton, he can be called the father of modern science, not only for his introduction of rigorous mathematics into the analysis of problems in physics, but also for his central role in building the pursuit of science as a Europe-wide collaborative project. Huygens, a Dutchman, became the leading light of the French Academy of Sciences and the first foreign fellow of the Royal Society of London. ‘The world is my country, science my religion,’ he once said.

Previous books include:

Tide: The Science and Lore of the Greatest Force on Earth, which explores the complex science of the tides with literary and artistic references and my own travels to tidally curious places. The Sunday Times called it ‘profound and powerful’ and ‘a delight to read’.

The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century, which won the East Anglian Book Award and was longlisted for the American PEN Biography Award. Browne was an extraordinary figure of the 17th century – a physician, a philosopher, and writer and a myth buster. My book seeks to reclaim Browne from academic obscurity, and to show how his ideas - about science, nature, religion and tolerance - are as relevant now as they were during his own troubled times.

Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements, a Sunday Times bestseller that gives a cultural history of the chemical elements. I curated an exhibition of contemporary artworks based on many of the elements at Compton Verney in 2015.

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
24 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ligeia Fontaine
5.0 out of 5 stars It's for Thomas Browne fanatics!
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2019
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I love this book--but then I love Sir Thomas Browne. With his easy-going style, the author tells us even more about our favorite 17-century doctor, natural philosopher, and writer. The author moves between the centuries not only easily but brings poignancy to the endeavor.
2 people found this helpful
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Christian Schlect
3.0 out of 5 stars Doubting Thomas
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2015
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A book not so much about its announced subject as about its modern-day author. It is interesting at times, bland at others.

Hugh Aldersey-Williams seems a sincere, liberal, and modern-day scientist who tries to relate to the present through the sketchily known life of what must have been a good and inquiring English mind of the early 17th century.

Climate change is high on Mr. Aldersey-Williams' list of present concerns. Also, the book is written for a British readership in that references to some modern British institutions are not made clear to one on this side of the Atlantic.
12 people found this helpful
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Anonymous XYZ
2.0 out of 5 stars Worthy, dull and does not reflect title or summary
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2018
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Sir Thomas Browne was a seventeenth century physician and philosopher who trained in Oxford and in Europe. He wrote a number of books which have come in and out of fashion over time. I suspect that his best known works are Religio Medici and Pseudodoxia Epidemica.
This book is written by Hugh Aldersey-Williams. Given the title you might image that this is a biography. Admittedly it's hard to write a biography of someone whose life is largely full of blanks. Aldersey-Williams should at least have tried. It's not as if the 17th century is a total blank. Browne's settled city of Norwich can't be a blank either. As a book that looks at social context and how it can inform and change the subject this is an abject failure. The introduction and first two chapters actually concern Sir Thomas Browne. The rest of the book is a commentary on the content of Browne's books where Aldersey-Williams observations are given prominence.
If this book was called Hugh Aldersey-Williams thoughts on the writings of Sir Thomas Browne then it would be honest and reflect the content. Aldersey-Williams writes in an erudite fashion but mostly about his own thoughts; that misses the point I feel.
If you are curious about Browne's writings then this may be a good introduction but as a book about Browne, his life and times this is a clear, disappointing miss.
8 people found this helpful
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Alcofribas Nasier
3.0 out of 5 stars it is still a very good read and very informative about a figure who hasn't ...
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2016
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Okay. This is very informative. But you have to dig through lots of precious writing to get to the information. The author thinks it will make the book -- I dunno, charming? warmer? -- to throw in narratives of his own. So he goes on about bicycling around Browne's home town. I don't know why, but I find this precious and distracting. That said, it is still a very good read and very informative about a figure who hasn't yet had his deserved attention.
9 people found this helpful
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A. Branchton
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Erudite Delight……..
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2015
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An amazing erudite brilliant amusing intelligent book… not for those who like frothy rubbish ….. or may be envious of author's skills. Didn't think it could equal Aldersey-Williams ANATOMIES (which I just re-ordered) but it does.
One person found this helpful
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Rob J.
1.0 out of 5 stars outdated and quite frankly disgusting points of view
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2015
This book is NOT about Sir Thomas Browne.. The author does sprinkle little factoids about Browne's life here and there, this book is about the author and his ultra left wing agenda. Basically the author uses a seemingly open minded 17th century doctor as a screen for his extremely closed minded, status quo, outdated and quite frankly disgusting points of view!
WARNING: THIS BOOK ENDORSES THE RECLASSIFICATION OF PEDOPHILIA FROM A CRIME TO A DISEASE!!!! As annoying and inappropriate as much of this author's prosthelytizing gets, I was absolutely shocked when he began saying we not punish pedophiles but treat them as we treat sick people.. The author explains that while children do get hurt, it's not the pedophiles fault (as if pedophiles have no control over their actions) no, they are just born that way. This book makes a serious comparison to the way we treat pedophiles and the way witches were treated in the 17th century. He claims we must not punish and hunt for pedophiles like they are witches etc etc. I almost wanted to vomit reading this book! If Hugh Aldersey-Williams doesn't have a big secret to share with all of us.. then he's covering for his royal society friends who do!
I was fooled by what looked like an interesting read. What I found was weak political dribble and putrid thoughts from an obviously gross individual. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
19 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Jack Buckley
5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and Challenging
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2015
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A complex and challenging subject, beautifully written and presented. Aldersey-Willia has clearly learned from Sir Thomas Browne how to combine enthusiasm with clarity in the world of ideas: a rare achievement.
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