I liked it a lot. It’s dark, and it owes a lot of its mood to Yourcenar’s Abyss, which I loved. That being said, there’s very little in here that helps you understand why the historical Copernicus was Copernicus. There’s almost nothing in it about science or an interest in the sky or intellectual curiosity. You’d have no notion from reading it that on a clear night, Copernicus would have seen from almost anywhere countless stars. You’d think he lived in one of our modern light-filled, black-skied cities, only without the light and with more rats.

A strange, unsettling book in which there are strong echoes of The Tempest (as in several other Banville novels). There’s a mysterious, hypnotic atmosphere to the whole thing and in the best possible way I often struggled to keep my eyes open for more than a few pages at a time.

Doctor Copernicus is also an early example of something John Banville does better than any contemporary writer I can think of, which is to take a seemingly momentous act or decision (treason in The Untouchable; a brutal murder in The Book of Evidence) and make it seem pedestrian to the point of being almost inconsequential. In this case a pivotal moment in scientific history - the emergence of the heliocentric theory of the solar system, blowing apart centuries of inaccurate received wisdom - appears as little more than a series of grubby, self-interested actions driven by the ambitions of a few middle aged men in silly outfits. Nicolaus Copernicus comes across less as an intellectual titan or scientific revolutionary than an introverted geek struggling to empathise with the world around him. It’s an entirely believable characterisation and quite possibly captures the essence of the man better than any of the historical biographies.

Estupenda obra! Soberbia y con destellos que divierten. Realmente es una joya. Está escrito de una forma magistral. Banville combina lo profundo y árido, con una dinámica alegre, dando como resultado un libro que no esperaba disfrutar tanto, ya que la temática es el desvanecimiento de la idea que se tenía de Dios y de la tierra como centro del Universo... una tarea nada fácil pero no para Banville.
Finalmente esta es una magistral novela histórica que es altamente recomendable para disfrutar y para aprender un poco mas del contexto histórico. AJB

3.5 stars. I thought this was an interesting and well written read. It bogged down the last sixty pages or so, which bumped this down from four stars. My first Banville.

I do not know that creating a historical fiction out Copernicus life will make it a more mythical and capricious but an enjoyable hot soup of peas.

Banville regularly comes first to mind when I think about writers whose sentences and paragraphs crackle and zing and soar with the utmost lively vivaciousness of craft and language. He makes you catch your breath with the sheer music of his syntax. This book embodies its setting with such thoroughness and dimension: historical fiction could hardly be more vivid. Does the novel's structure work as well as the sentences that comprise it, though? Perhaps not, perhaps the sum of parts is more than the whole. I'm undecided on this point. But whatever's (maybe) lost on the way is redeemed by the book's final section, though: a towering conclusion, like the majestic final bars of a symphony. I find it impossible to quibble too much with a piece of writing this beautiful.

Esperaba un enfoque que hablara más de su faceta científica

Wanted to like it more than I did. Thought there would be more about how Copernicus changed the face of the universe.

John Banville, a great Irish writer, writes beautifully. This is a difficult read but it really is worth it since it brings to life the personality and the struggles of the greatest scientist of the 16th century, the man who changed our entire understanding of the universe, Nicolas Copernicus. You'll need to concentrate while reading this book, but it's worth it.

Giving books stars is a weird combination of how well I think the book was written and how much I enjoyed reading it. I didn't enjoy this book at all. I get that he wasn't going for traditional historical fiction, but this was too odd and unpleasant for me, and I didn't get what he was going for.

In Banville's book, the character of Copernicus gets lost in the baroque descriptions of the seamy side of life - enough suppurating, mewling, leering in this one book to fill a trilogy

John Banville has a better command of the English language than anyone I've read; -- his vocabulary can stymie the most devoted literature student. And, he is a brilliant writer. DOCTOR COPERICUS is Banville through and through, letter perfect. Banville writes not only about the life of Copericus, the father of astronomy, who puts the sun at the center of the Universe and moves man to the edge. His theories mark the end of the Age of Idealism. Banville's vision of the world is cruelly stark, and Copernicus is maddeningly reticent. Orphaned young, Copericus is hounded and bullied by his ill-reputed brother, who eventually dies of syphilis. He has a luke-warm relationship with his two sisters, one who becomes an abbess, and another who is a shrew. He is ruled by a disinterested uncle on the maternal side. Copernicus, one of the world's most brilliant minds, is barely acknowledged. Plot-wise, I found the book rather ponderous, and Copericus, himself, distant and difficult.