The Indian ClerkThe Indian Clerk
The brilliant new novel from one of our most respected writers—his most ambitious and accessible to date.
On a January morning in 1913, G. H. Hardy—eccentric, charismatic and, at thirty-seven, already considered the greatest British mathematician of his age—receives in the mail a mysterious envelope covered with Indian stamps. Inside he finds a rambling letter from a self-professed mathematical genius who claims to be on the brink of solving the most important unsolved mathematical problem of all time. Some of his Cambridge colleagues dismiss the letter as a hoax, but Hardy becomes convinced that the Indian clerk who has written it—Srinivasa Ramanujan—deserves to be taken seriously. Aided by his collaborator, Littlewood, and a young don named Neville who is about to depart for Madras with his wife, Alice, he determines to learn more about the mysterious Ramanujan and, if possible, persuade him to come to Cambridge. It is a decision that will profoundly affect not only his own life, and that of his friends, but the entire history of mathematics.
Based on the remarkable true story of the strange and ultimately tragic relationship between an esteemed British mathematician and an unknown—and unschooled—mathematical genius, and populated with such luminaries such as D. H. Lawrence, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Indian Clerk takes this extraordinary slice of history and transforms it into an emotional and spell-binding story about the fragility of human connection and our need to find order in the world.
On a January morning in 1913, G. H. Hardy - eccentric, charismatic, and, at thirty-seven, already considered the greatest British mathematician of his age - receives in the mail a mysterious envelope covered with Indian stamps. Inside he finds a rambling letter from a self-professed mathematical genius who claims to be on the brink of solving the most important unsolved mathematical problem of all time. Some of his Cambridge colleagues dismiss the letter as a hoax, but Hardy is convinced that the Indian clerk who wrote it, Srinivasa Ramanujan, deserves to be taken seriously. Aided by his collaborator, Littlewood, and a young don named Neville who is about to depart for Madras with his wife, Alice, Hardy determines to learn more about the mysterious Ramanujan and, if possible, persuade him to come to Cambridge. It is a decision that will profoundly affect not only his own life and the lives of his friends, but the entire history of mathematics.
Based on the remarkable true story of the strange and ultimately tragic relationship between an esteemed British mathematician and an unknown - and unschooled - mathematical genius, and populated with luminaries such as D. H. Lawrence, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Indian Clerk takes this slice of history and transforms it into a story about the fragility of human connection and our need to find order in the world.
In 1913, the eccentric and charismatic G. H. Hardy, Britain's leading mathematician, receives a letter from a self-professed mathematical genius, Indian clerk Srinivasa Ramanujan, who claims to be on the verge of solving the most important unsolved mathematical puzzle of the age, and sets out to persuade the enigmatic Ramanujan to come to Cambridge, in a novel based on a real-life incident.
In 1913, the eccentric G. H. Hardy, Britain's leading mathematician, receives a letter from a self-professed mathematical genius, Indian clerk Srinivasa Ramanujan, and sets out to persuade the enigmatic Ramanujan to come to Cambridge.
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- New York : Bloomsbury, 2007., New York : Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers
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