Biografía novelada de Nicolás Copérnico (Niklas Koppernigk) quien vivió s. XVI –XVII. Describe la vida y obra de este clérigo, tímido y brillante.

Tendiente a refugiarse en la belleza y precisión del descubrimiento científico como expresión de la armonía platónica, y contra el horror del mundo y el contacto con otros hombres. Pese a ello desarrolló una carrera como correcto administrador en organizaciones eclesiásticas, en situaciones de gran inestabilidad política, con el trasfondo de la reforma luterana, en la región entre Polonia y la actual Alemania.

La imagen del horror del mundo queda reflejada en el diálogo con el fantasma de su disipado hermano Andreas. Por otra parte, al comienzo se hace una insinuación del nominalismo (el árbol era, pero aún no tenía nombre).

La tragedia de Koppernigk es que para huir del mundo vuelca su inteligencia a la ciencia astronómica, y su búsqueda lo lleva a concusiones que ponen en crisis el modelo geocéntrico, que por entonces formaba parte parte del dogma de la Iglesia, a la que pertenecía, y consideraba su refugio de un mundo al que temía. Por ello fue remiso a publicar sus conclusiones, que prefirió presentar, luego de mucha insistencia, como una simple hipótesis más, que podría "justificar los fenómenos".

Una novela muy ilustrativa y atrapante.

PD: La obra de Copérnico fue utilizada como base para los estudios astronómicos de Galileo Galilei, quien, con la ayuda del recientemente inventado telescopio, afirmó, con carácter de certeza, lo que Copérnico insinuó como hipótesis (aunque después debió retractarse ante la Inquisición).

John Banville (Irlanda, 1945) es un escritor polifacético que ha pasado de la novela histórica-científica, a la novela clásica, con obras como El mar y Eclipse entre otros; también ha escrito novela policial con el seudónimo de Benjamin Black.

Literary Fiction

Normally I love John Banville’s writing, his lyrical prose and vast, colourful vocabulary, but this one was a slog from start to finish.

I enjoyed this better than Banville's book on Kepler because he (Banville) sticks a little closer to the real history to the extent it's known and because we actually know so little about the historical Copernicus, there is lots of room for interpretation that doesn't come off as a sloppy lack of research. Like in Kepler, Banville's heavy reliance on Arthur Koestler's The Sleepwalkers is the book's weakest link, not because The Sleepwalkers isn't great contrarian history (it is), but because much that seems original here was actually original with Koestler whose pretty devastating (if not entirely fair) portrayal of Copernicus and his systema mundi is mirrored quite faithfully. The main difference between the two authors' interpretations is in Banville's unsympathetic but bracing portrayal of Rheticus, who comes off not as a dedicated disciple, an enthusiast ahead of his time, but rather as a mincing, tricky, failed glory hog. Rheticus' imagined first person narrative in Part III was by far the most enjoyable part of the novel. Although Rheticus is unlikable, he's also capable of more joy, and certainly more buoyancy, than Copernicus who just sinks and sinks throughout the story, even if the work ultimately floats. I also hope for the sake of those who came before us that the grim portrayal in parts I and II of sixteenth century Europe is an exaggeration since things were only going to get worse in the seventeenth.

Nicholas Koppernigk, or Copernicus which is his more famous name, was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician and astronomer. He worked as a Catholic canon, a kind of religious title. His research led him to a new model of the universe, that placed the Sun rather than Earth as its center. He might have realised that his theory would be controversial, and he postponed the publication of it, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, until just before his death.

Banville gives us a man of "painful reticence" as it is stated at the back cover. That is true. He is a man hunted by something unnamed. Although he discovers faults with other accepted theories of the day, he is reluctant to put forward his own ideas. He is living in a world of wars and conflicts between kings, princes and the church. His brother is haunting him with his life style; he sees conspiracies all around him, and would most of all like to withdraw from the world.

"He found that city (Cracow) strangely altered, no longer the forlorn gloomy terminus he had known during his university years, but a bustling waystation cheerful with travellers and loud with the uproar of foreign tongues. To be sure, the change was not in the city but in him, the traveller, who noticed now what the student had ignored, yet he chose to see his new regard for this proud cold capital as a sign that he had at last grown up into himself and his world, that he was at last renouncing the past and turning his face toward an intrepid manhood; it was all nonsense, of course, he knew it; but still, he was allowed for a few days at least to feel mature, and worldly-wise, and significant."

It's hard to say exactly what I found wrong with this book, but I think it's mostly that it starts when the main character is too young, a common problem I have with these kinds of books. I don't care what happened in Copernicus' childhood that made him who he is. I care about the interesting stuff that happened when he was an adult. Sadly, there wasn't enough of that in the first half for me. And then, the book changes main characters and narrators and I just lost interest. I think if I had known how old this book is when I started it that I wouldn't have expected quite as much as I do from modern HF, but I'm not sure that would have been enough to keep me reading.

My copy of John Banville's Doctor Copernicus is a beautiful first American edition, which I bought for the princely sum of $25 back in 2014.  I decided to read it for A Year with John Banville co-hosted by Kim at Reading Matters and Cathy from 746 Books because it's the oldest of books that I have on the Banville TBR.

My copy was almost pristine, so much so that the pages in the latter part of the book had to be gently prised apart, as if they had never been read.  And I think I know why that might be...

I think that perhaps engagement with the text might fizzle out for some readers.  It nearly did with me.

The book is written in four sections and the first two are lively enough.  They focus on the childhood of Copernicus (1473-1543) and his life up to about his middle thirties. The most engaging part of these sections is the sibling rivalry between Copernicus and his brother Andreas.  Copernicus is mild, bookish, clever, industrious and apparently celibate, and Andreas is handsome, lazy, irresponsible, profligate and promiscuous.  At every opportunity, he torments Copernicus out of jealousy, following him across Europe to Italy and back, sponging off him while deriding his successes and creating embarrassment for him in church circles. The descriptions of his ultimate fate as he succumbs to the pox are truly grotesque and not for the faint-hearted.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/13/d...

Doctor Copernicus is the first historic fiction in Irish author John Banville’s Revolutions Trilogy (the other two being on Kepler and Isaac Newton). Historic fiction is always challenging to get right. One critique that I had when reading the novel was that it seemed to be light on Copernicus as a scientific researcher. I subsequently read “The Search for Copernicus in History and Fiction” by Wini Warren and gleaned that this is because history has not afforded us much information on Copernicus as a researcher. As Warren notes, “"If Doctor Copernicus is short on astronomy, so, it appears, was the life of the man." The novel was both engaging and enlightening. Nicolaus Copernicus’s life (1473-1543) intersected with the tumultuous age of the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Copernicus spanned the political boundaries of Prussia, Poland, and independent Italian states. At one point the scientist-physician-Catholic canon was involved in negotiations with the aggressive Teutonic Knights who were trying to conquer Polish territory. All these factor into Copernicus’s reticence to publish his famous heliocentric “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres,” a work published just prior to his death. Wini Warren astutely notes, "To be good, both fiction and history must deal in some way with reality as most readers know it." Banville’s “Doctor Copernicus” met this criteria of believability.

Más allá de contarnos la vida de Copérnico, nos habla del contexto de la época, del rol predominante del catolicismo, de los mitos, especialmente de la dificultad de cuestionar lo místico y espiritual establecido desde la iglesia. Es una radiografía de la edad media, del miedo y de un mundo, cuyos valores y preceptos siguen predominando en muchas culturas hoy.

Membaca 1001 books to read before you die, agak kaget juga melihat nama John Banville muncul. Tapi setelah membaca (mendengar lebih tepatnya, karena saya mendapat versi audiobooknya) Doctor Copernicus, atribusi tersebut ternyata layak ia sandang.
Tadinya saya membaca Doctor Copernicus sebagai bahan referensi untuk menulis buku anak-anak, in the end, I ended up enjoying the book. John Banville punya bakat sebagai pencerita handal, buktinya kisah Copernicus tersampaikan dengan sangat alami dan enak diikuti. Copernicus yang kita temui di buku ini bukanlah seorang tokoh bersejarah perombak konsep astronomi ptolomeic, melainkan seorang anak muda yang rikuh, dikejar bayang-bayang sang kakak yang jauh lebih sociable dan tampan; seorang yatim piatu yang ditekan pengaruh pamannya yang seorang magistrate katolik ternama; dan seorang homoseksual dalam kehidupan pra-renaissans yang sarat prejudice.
Saya baru sampai ke tengah bab 3 dari keseluruhan buku yang berjumlah empat bab. Tapi rasanya cukup adil kalau saya review buku ini sebagai buku yang layak sekali untuk dibaca.

Like any Banville novel, "Doctor Copernicus" will leave you scribbling down passages and page numbers on whatever surface you can find. Banville's command of language is such that you feel the need to return to him repeatedly, to share him with others. His language does not require context either, so beautiful are his sentences, so perfectly can he distill the complex, the recondite, the truth.

And a book comprised of those sentences is always worth reading. "Doctor Copernicus," however, like "Kepler" (the novel that follows it, and the second in Banville's "Revolutions Trilogy"), does suffer from a number of passages that feel a bit superfluous. It is perhaps fitting that a book about Copernicus sometimes only orbits its subject; and there is certainly purpose to those wider swaths, as Banville tries to not only deal with the doctor himself, but the tumult of Copernicus' time. Banville also adopts the rhetorical style of the period, particularly in the section comprised entirely of letter correspondence between Copernicus, his allies and enemies. That style, whatever its fidelity to the period, can be frustrating.

When Banville is working at the periapsis he is typically masterful. Still, there are moments when the reader might feel himself becoming untethered, being set adrift or dislodged by disinterest, and by the knowledge that Banville is better elsewhere.

Wonderfully written biography, apart from the final few pages. I didn’t mind the section written from Rheticus’ pov too much, but agree with others that his voice was much less likeable than the earlier sections in Copernicus’ voice.