The Wild Numbers - Softcover

Philibert Schogt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753813149 ISBN 13: 9780753813140

Publisher: Phoenix mass market p/bk, 2002

Synopsis

As a mathematician - not an outstanding one, but a competent, unextraordinary pencil-pusher - Professor Isaac Swift is constantly having drummed into him that it's the prodigies of his profession, the burning suns of his little universe, that advance human knowledge. Now Isaac thinks he's found the solution to 'Beauregard's Wild Number problem', the puzzle that has stumped savants the world over for centuries. And Dimitri, his mentor at the university, a great mathematician himself, thinks Isaac has cracked it. If so, Isaac will have elevated himself to the ranks of the immortals. But an accusation of plagiarism from the tweed-clad mature student Leonard Vale creates a storm of violence and anguish that threatens to disrupt both the university and Isaac's sanity. THE WILD NUMBERS is a gripping story about self-doubt, ambition and delusion.

About this title

Review

Mathematical insight is like an assassin's bullet--you don't know it's there until it hits you. Dutch philosopher and mathematician Philibert Schogt shows us the workings of the math-obsessed mind in his short novel The Wild Numbers. Following the mental and physical ramblings of the unspectacular Professor Isaac Swift as he comes closer to solving a beautifully thorny problem left behind generations ago by an eccentric French genius, the book cleverly dissects the forces driving mathematical creativity. Swift just barely balances his overpowering mental impulses, often likened to a "buzzing in his head," with his physical and social needs. Those familiar with academic math departments will find Schogt's eccentric crank Leonard Vale entertaining and all too true:

The pages crawled with incomprehensible equations in his familiar scratchy handwriting. He always threw in as many integral signs, sigmas, and other mathematical symbols as possible, reminding me of the calculations of comic book geniuses. Here and there he had left a clearing in the dense jungle of formulae, in which he had written profound aphorisms, underlined three times and followed by three exclamation marks.

Vale becomes a serious problem when he accuses Swift of plagiarizing his work, driving the novel toward its dark conclusion. Nonmathematical readers shouldn't fear--the few equations are simply illustrations of Swift's thinking, and no advanced knowledge is required to follow the plot. Contrasting the flash of insight with the dull glow of truth, The Wild Numbers illuminates the plight of a mathematical mind stuck in a real world. --Rob Lightner

About the Author

The author is Dutch, educated in America, and is writing his second novel. He lives in Amsterdam.

About this edition

• Publisher: Phoenix mass market p/bk
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0753813149
• ISBN 13: 9780753813140
• Binding: Paperback