Galileo: A Life

by James Reston Jr.
Galileo: A Life cover
Good Books rating 3.5
Biography and Memoir
Technical
  • ID: 185
  • Added: 2025-09-03
  • Updated: 2025-09-03
  • ISBN: 9781587982514
  • Publisher: Beard Books
  • Published: 2005-01-01
  • Reviews: 3
Reviews
Reston Books · 2025-09-03
compelling 4.50

The book vividly depicts Galileo’s brilliance and the rich, turbulent era he lived in, portraying his personal challenges and dramatic confrontations, especially his conflict with the Inquisition. It is praised for its compelling storytelling and sensitive portrait of Galileo’s friendships and struggles.

The reviewer admires the book’s ability to bring to life the intellectual excitement and paranoia surrounding Galileo’s astronomical discoveries, as well as the personal and family difficulties he faced. They highlight the dramatic and emotional dimensions of Galileo’s story, such as his journey to face the Inquisition, making the historical narrative gripping and relatable. The praise from noted astrophysicist Owen Gingerich underscores the book’s success in presenting Galileo in a fresh and compelling manner that stands out among many accounts.

Quick quotes

    Fresh, sinewy, and altogether admirable.

    Reston paints a vivid yet sensitive portrait of Galileo.

    It is a dramatic story, often told, but never as compellingly as this.

Publishers Weekly · 2025-09-03
engaging 4.00

The book vividly places Galileo as a man deeply embedded in his turbulent era, capturing his clashes with authorities and peers with immediacy and dramatic flair. It balances historical context with personal dialogue, bringing the period and characters to life for general readers.

This review appreciates how the author uses Galileo’s own journals and letters to create a vivid narrative that feels immediate and personable. The present tense narration adds a lifelike quality to Galileo and his contemporaries, highlighting the personal and institutional conflicts Galileo faced. The book is seen as accessible for general readers, although it somewhat glosses over detailed science and theology in favor of drama and character. Overall, it is praised for its fresh and engaging approach to a well-known historical figure, making the story relevant even today.

Quick quotes

    Reston delineates the personal and institutional storms that Galileo endured and seemed unerringly to seek out.

    The use of present tense gives the characters a magnified, flesh-and-blood presence.

    Reston recreates the era with immediacy by mining Galileo's journals and letters for dialogue.

Goodreads · 2025-09-03
mixed 2.00

The book offers an engaging portrait of Galileo as a complex, brilliant, and often difficult man, focusing more on his personality and era than his scientific discoveries. It reveals Galileo's arrogance and persistence as well as his significant contributions to astronomy and science.

This perspective highlights Galileo not just as a scientist but as a human being full of contradictions: arrogant, unforgiving, yet intellectually brilliant. The reviewer appreciates learning many aspects of Galileo's life and inventions, including his conflicts with the Church and peers. However, despite the admiration for Galileo as a figure, the narrative style was found dry and boring, diminishing the enjoyment of reading about such a fascinating historical character. The review reflects a tension between respecting the subject and disappointment in the book’s delivery.

Quick quotes

    Galileo was no saint...he was arrogant and persnickity...and petulant.

    The amazing number of his inventions boggle the head.

    It was just too dry and BORING.

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