Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements

by Paul Strathern

Book Overview

In this elegant, erudite, but entertaining book, Paul Strathern, the award-winning novelist and expositor of complex ideas, unravels the dramatic history of chemistry through the quest for the elements. Framing this history is the life story of the nineteenth-century Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleyev, who fell asleep at his desk and awoke after conceiving the periodic table in a dream-the template upon which modern chemistry is founded and the formulation...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312262043
• ISBN13: 9780312262044
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An Inexpert Review

As someone who loves popular science and history, but who is neither a scientist nor a historian (I'm an illustrator), I found this journey, culminating in Mendeleyev's insight, to be one of the most engrossing and eye-opening books I've read in quite some time. Reading the other reviews above reinforces my belief that the more one knows about a subject the harsher (and more fussy) the criticism. Though some of the negative comments may be deserved, I nevertheless recommend this as an imminently readable history of the personalities who sought to uncover the secrets of the elements. I'm convinced that if science education were supplemented with the kind of engaging narrative backstory contained in Strathern's book, non-science-minded students would take a much greater interest in learning molar masses and balancing chemical equations.

Worth Re-Reading

This is an outstanding book if you are very interested in both history and science. Some earlier reviewer were disappointed in not finding more information about chemistry, but it's not a chemistry book, it's a history book. A better book about the elements, including each specific element and how each was discovered, is "A Guide to the Elements" by Stwertka. This book is about the history of chemistry, culminating in Mendeleyev's realization of the periodic table - the "order" in the chemical world that people had been looking for. It's not a book about Mendeleyev, but about his dream, which was every Chemist's dream. Hence, the title Mendeleyev's DREAM. Strathern has a great grasp of history and an unusual ability to condense complex historical events into just a few sentences. This helps the reader understand the context within with various events take place -- extremely important. The reader who already has a grasp of some basic world history will get more out of this book, however. I particularly liked how Strathern describes the various characters with warts and all. It makes it so much more fascinating! They are complex people with ambitions, phobias, superstitions, arrogence and so on. The lives of these people are stories in and of themselves, and Strathern makes these stories both readable and believable. I often found myself shaking my head in amazement and/or amusement. There were some complaints in earlier reviews about Strathern spending too much time on Medieval and Ancient times. I didn't think that was a problem at all. I found it all very interesting, then again, I'm interested Ancient and Medieval History. I think it's important to learn what went on prior to modern science, back in the days of alchemy and elixers. It makes modern science look pretty good.After I was done with the book I found myself picking it up over and over again, re-reading various passages, still shaking my head in amazement.

Vivid writing on an apparently dull subject

This book provides a vivid history of chemistry, centered around a literary conceit: Mendeleyev's dream. It is an admirable effort in a field that sees few of any vitality.The only distressing flaw is the advocacy of Nicolas of Cusa as having exposed the fraudulence of the Donantion of Constantine. Convention has it that it was Lorenzo Valla who did so; Strathern ought to have acknowledged this. Some scholars will insist that it was Valla, however, a history of chemistry is not the place for advocating unusual theories on other subjects. Otherwise, a great read! Very plucky.

Elementary elements

The title is slightly misleading, as the book is mostly about alchemy, philosophers and other discoverers of elements and chemical principles. But what a super book - it begins and ends with Mendeleyev, yet in between we are treated to a complete history of the groundwork that went into the discovery and classification of the elements. We meet many famous names, some not-so-famous and a few unsung tyros, along with their discoveries and what led up to them. Many of the discoveries were accidental, others through hard work and the rest by following scientific principles.All of this is far from dull; the author has an undercurrent of subtle humour running through the whole book, making one break out into a wry smile every now and then. The key players in this 'dream' are the names that we remember from school, but have forgotten who they were, what they did and why ... this reminds us and fills in a lot of blanks, as well as fleshing out the characters - why they were like that and how they became drawn ino the field of alchemy/chemistry - some for mercenary gain, others for more esoteric reasons. We also hear other names not normally associated with Science - Borodin (music), Francis Bacon (plays), Lucretius (poetry) and many more.I shall read more of this author's works, if they are in the same vein as this - a thoroughly absorbing and gratifying read!

Great history of chemistry...

Ever since I was exposed to chemistry in high school, I have always wondered how this form of science ever began. I was expecting a biography on Mendeleyev's life and studies but instead, this book exposed me to the stories of the earliest philosophers who were always thinking. Paul Strathern gives the readers numerous anecdotes of the fine alchemists and chemists that forged what we know as modern chemistry. You will learn surprising things that a chemistry text book will never tell you! Go get this book, a great scientific read!