Figuring

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars | 910 ratings

Price: 21.66

Last update: 01-03-2025


About this item

Figuring explores the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries - beginning with the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, and ending with the marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the environmental movement.

Stretching between these figures is a cast of artists, writers, and scientists - mostly women, mostly queer - whose public contribution have risen out of their unclassifiable and often heartbreaking private relationships to change the way we understand, experience, and appreciate the universe. Among them are the astronomer Maria Mitchell, who paved the way for women in science; the sculptor Harriet Hosmer, who did the same in art; the journalist and literary critic Margaret Fuller, who sparked the feminist movement; and the poet Emily Dickinson.

Emanating from these lives are larger questions about the measure of a good life and what it means to leave a lasting mark of betterment on an imperfect world: Are achievement and acclaim enough for happiness? Is genius? Is love? Weaving through the narrative is a set of peripheral figures - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Darwin, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Walt Whitman - and a tapestry of themes spanning music, feminism, the history of science, the rise and decline of religion, and how the intersection of astronomy, poetry, and transcendentalist philosophy fomented the environmental movement.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Gayle Markow
    5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous writing, amazing history!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2020
    I am reading this book slowly. Well, yes, I am a slow reader, but also, this book is SO rich, it deserves to be savored. I've underlined at least half of it. It makes being awake with insomnia at 3 in the morning totally worth it. First of all, Maria Popova's sentences are gorgeous, sometimes jaw-droppingly so. They astonish me. Second of all there's so much history of scientific discovery and discoverers (and so many of them women!!) and literature, and social activism, and personal relationships that are every bit as entangled and rife with longing and suffering, and occasionally happy fulfillment as any going on today. The people feel very alive and real -- as if they were alive today, but also as if I had time-travelled back and could eaves-drop and witness the goings-on. Maria creates a sense of perspective regardingh historical change, especially regarding women's rights, gay rights, and scientific understandings. She deals brilliantly with the topic of "beauty". This book sent me to further investigate all kinds of people and science, and to buy several more books related to the people and topics she explores (including Rachel Carson's book "The Sea Around Us", and a book called "The Bluest of Blues" about Anna Atkins photographs of algae.It made me want to study astronomy. As the daughter, sister, and mother of photographers, and as a photographer myself, I loved the chapter on photography the most. But then, really I loved all the chapters and how beautiful she wove this amazing and huge story through the centuries and the specific lives of people. I love how she wove the relationship between science and literature, infusing both with the central element of beauty. I would have to say that "Figuring" is my favorite book EVER. I still have about 100 pages to go, but am in no hurry to finish, so I'm taking my time.
  • John P. Quirke
    5.0 out of 5 stars An Absolute Gem of a Read
    Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2024
    Written as an exploration of the (very real) intersection of science and poetry, this book delivers page after page of delight. The scientists, almost all female, were unknown to me and that alone was worth the price of admission. But, the beautiful way the author humanizes them through a gentle (and extended) discussion of their private lives and loves is a sheer delight. Maria Popova demonstrates a clear-eyed reverence for each of her subjects as she delivers on exposing the interconnectedness of the wonders of the heart and the cosmos.

    A book that is in a category all its own, and beautifully so.
  • Carrie E. Ruggieri
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
    Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2019
    I’ve never felt more grateful for the existence of a writer. This book is about science, humanity,love, ideas, beauty. There is a refreshing alignment of science with art, in that science is essentially organic art- that is if we judge art to be what inspires. And, it’s about the precious vulnerable smallness we get to feel when astounded by the wonder of the big sky of the anatomy of a daffodil or the upending of love. Maria Popova brings the scientist’s of wonder to life, especially women scientists, who are otherwise unknown (zest least to me). Maria Popova is a scientist of human hearts. She she holds out, with great care, for us to see, what is sweet and tender in the hearts of these greatest of minds. By humanizing their greatness, she lets us see the beautiful in every human, in myself. A main theme is beauty - the people she writes of are driven to genius when awestruck by beauty. And the theme of beauty is within Maria Popova’s gorgeous writing. Very gorgeous, inspiring, and a sense that every word is infused with profound respect and love for her subjects and for the ideas. You’d figure a book about science, poetry, history, love, and everything else human, would get bogged down. It doesn’t. It’s the smoothest read. It feels graciously offered.
  • Albertine
    5.0 out of 5 stars Unique perspective on science, history, and philosophy
    Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2024
    Fascinating melding of history of science, philosophy, and struggle of women to achieve success in science.
    Written from a perspective that is insightful, lively, informal, and engaging!
  • Madeleine Eve
    4.0 out of 5 stars Well worth the year it took me to read it
    Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2020
    I took my time with this book. I was reading others at the same time. The book chronicles accomplished women and several men from the last four or so centuries. I thought the book was about women scientists and it is. The book also covers literary greats and Popova shows how these individuals are part of communities that support and sometimes thwart their efforts. I really liked the Emily Dickinson and Rachel Carson portions. Popova brought a personal touch to their stories that went deeper than I had been aware of. A good read.
  • David Duckworth
    5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I've ever read
    Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2024
    Figuring is the book that I think of probably at least once a week. The figures that Figuring figures are captivating and too often forgotten by history--at least in the way they deserve to be remembered. Popova walks this line carefully, trying not to ascribe modern moral judgment while still following a postmodernist stance of thinking about these figures as dynamic human beings. She paints these people as human and flawed but also beautiful in a way we rarely get to think about scientists and writers. As a queer woman in science, Popova brought tears to my eyes numerous times throughout my read, realizing the incredible history I'm standing on. Her form itself evoked the motivations and brilliance and human fallibility of each character as an art. Particular for me was her portrayal of Margaret Fuller. I read this part during an especially challenging time in my life, and this put a lot into perspective for me. I just gifted this book to another queer scientist friend and she's having similar realizations with each story. Thank you Maria for this true work of art!
  • James Wilson
    5.0 out of 5 stars As advertised
    Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2024
    Book was in fine shape
  • News Fan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and Unique
    Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2023
    Hard to describe or categorize, but deeply engrossing. Poetic descriptions of the lives and thoughts of some fascinating historical artists, thinkers, scientists, mostly women. Lucid exposition of late 19th century and early 20th Century American intellectual history. Successfully connects the dots between a host of admirable women, their work, their legacies, including two of my secular saints, Emily Dickinson and Rachel Carson.

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