Amazon.co.uk ReviewA Beautiful Mind in some ways could join the ranks of stories of famously eccentric Princetonians--such as that of chemist Hubert Alyea, the model for
The Absent-Minded Professor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to the library as an undergraduate. Another much-related story on campus concerns the "Phantom of Fine Hall", a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of the maths and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writing numerology treatises on the blackboards. This was in fact John Nash, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who had spiralled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work had been in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large part of economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prize for game theory, Nash''s name inevitably came up--only to be dismissed, since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, in remission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics for work done some 45 years previously.
Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of his life. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of his mathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocative but decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash''s Nobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available in print (the CIA could learn a thing or two from the Nobel committees). This highly recommended book is indeed "a story about the mystery of the human mind, in three acts: genius, madness, reawakening". --Mary Ellen Curtin, Amazon.com --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Roy Porter, The Times, 10 September 1998
A compelling book about a phenomenal figure. Sylvia Nasar manages to illuminate both the man and his maths. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Observer, 20 September 1998
An intriguing analysis of the tortured life of John Nash, mathematical genius and Nobel laureate extraordinary. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Times Higher Educational Supplement, 23 October 1998
As a gripping narrative, as an account of mental illness and as a study of a very interesting scholar, I think this book should find many readers. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Daily Telegraph, 21 November 1998
A detailed, sensitive and multi-sided account of the bizarre life of the mathematician John Nash. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Sunday Telegraph, 18 July 1999
(This)brilliantly combines an intellectual history of an abstruse branch of mathematics, a love story, and an investigation into genius and madness. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
书评
Amazon.co.uk ReviewA Beautiful Mind in some ways could join the ranks of stories of famously eccentric Princetonians--such as that of chemist Hubert Alyea, the model for
The Absent-Minded Professor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to the library as an undergraduate. Another much-related story on campus concerns the "Phantom of Fine Hall", a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of the maths and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writing numerology treatises on the blackboards. This was in fact John Nash, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who had spiralled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work had been in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large part of economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prize for game theory, Nash''s name inevitably came up--only to be dismissed, since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, in remission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics for work done some 45 years previously.
Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of his life. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of his mathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocative but decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash''s Nobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available in print (the CIA could learn a thing or two from the Nobel committees). This highly recommended book is indeed "a story about the mystery of the human mind, in three acts: genius, madness, reawakening". --Mary Ellen Curtin, Amazon.com --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Roy Porter, The Times, 10 September 1998
A compelling book about a phenomenal figure. Sylvia Nasar manages to illuminate both the man and his maths. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Observer, 20 September 1998
An intriguing analysis of the tortured life of John Nash, mathematical genius and Nobel laureate extraordinary. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Times Higher Educational Supplement, 23 October 1998
As a gripping narrative, as an account of mental illness and as a study of a very interesting scholar, I think this book should find many readers. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Daily Telegraph, 21 November 1998
A detailed, sensitive and multi-sided account of the bizarre life of the mathematician John Nash. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Sunday Telegraph, 18 July 1999
(This)brilliantly combines an intellectual history of an abstruse branch of mathematics, a love story, and an investigation into genius and madness. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
