Measuring the World

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Measuring the World
First edition (German)
AuthorDaniel Kehlmann
Original titleDie Vermessung der Welt
TranslatorCarol Brown Janeway
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman
GenreNovel
PublisherRowohlt Verlag
Pantheon Books
Publication date
September 2005
Published in English
November 7, 2006
Pages304 (German hardcover edition)
272 (English hardcover edition)
ISBN3-498-03528-2 (German hardcover edition)
ISBN 0-375-42446-6 (English hardcover edition)
OCLC61714982
LC ClassPT2671.E32 V47 2005

Measuring the World (German: Die Vermessung der Welt) is a novel by Austrian author Daniel Kehlmann, published in 2005 by Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek. The novel re-imagines the lives of German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and German geographer Alexander von Humboldt—who was accompanied on his journeys by French explorer Aimé Bonpland—and their many groundbreaking ways of taking the world's measure, as well as Humboldt's and Bonpland's travels in America and their meeting in 1828. One subplot fictionalises the conflict between Gauss and his son Eugene; while Eugene wanted to become a linguist, his father decreed that he studies law. The book was a bestseller; by 2012, it had sold more than 2.3 million copies in Germany alone.[1]

A film version directed by Detlev Buck was released in 2012.[2]

Translations[edit]

The English translation is by Carol Brown Janeway (November 2006).[3]

Rosa Pilar Blanco translated the book into Spanish.

References[edit]

External links[edit]