The Discovery of Slowness

By Sten Nadolny

Book Overview

In The Discovery of Slowness , German novelist Sten Nadolny recounts the life of the nineteenth-century British explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847). The reader follows Franklin's development from awkward schoolboy and ridiculed teenager to expedition leader, governor of Tasmania, and icon of adventure. Everyone with whom he came into contact sensed that he was a rare man, one who was "out of his time" and who moved to a different, grander beat. That beat eventually led Franklin to sail once more--on his final, fateful voyage--into the Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage. The Discovery of Slowness is both a riveting account of a remarkable and varied life, and a profound and thought-provoking meditation on time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140265848
• ISBN13: 9780140265842
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 5.5" x 0.5"

Customer Reviews

Read It More Than Once

My encounter with this book was a bit magical. I arrived at a B & B in Vail and one of Mr. Nadolny's other books was on a table in the common area. I asked about it, and the proprietress said Mr. Nadolny had left that morning and had given her the book. I read it, loved it, and sought out his other works. My favorite review of this book describes it as "a utopia of character." Truly it is. Yes, it's a nice little biography...

Slowness and Respect

I read "Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit" when it came out in German in 1983, and loved it. Unfortuntately, it was a borrowed copy, and I kept looking for it among my collection of German books when I often referred it to others. Now I again had an opportunity to refer to it while reading Patricia Wood's new (and first) novel Lottery, which is also about a very slow person, Perry, who gains respect and friendship after what...

It moves me through and through Lord Child! it show am good.

I like taking this book out for a long night stroll. Maybe it's lightly raining, of course it's dark with only street lights to light up the words on the page. It moves me through and through Lord! Child! it shorely am good it good it good! it so damn good!

do yourself the favour and read this book . . .

this book is unusually thruthful and gripped me from the beginning to the very end - maybe because of the fact that I have something in common with Franklin. So convincinglty written , I'd like to have met the protagonist !

German classic best-seller in English at last!

The publication (or to be more accurate, re-publication) in English of Sten Nadolny's The Discovery of Slowness is a major literary event, not only for connoisseurs of fine historical fiction, but also for those of us who concern themselves with leadership, communication and systems-thinking issues. First published in Germany in 1983, this powerful novel of the life of explorer John Franklin has never been out-of-print...