The Syme Papers

The Syme Papers PDF Author: Benjamin Markovits
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571268315
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
Douglas Pitt is a man obsessed. Laughed at, mocked, and dismissed at every turn, Pitt has dedicated the best part of an unremarkable academic career attempting to prove the genius of Samuel Highgate Syme (b.1794, Baltimore; soldier, geologist, inventor). Pitt's postulation is simple enough: Syme, through some fault, wrong-doing, conspiracy or mischance, has not been credited with the recognition he deserves for hitting upon a key discovery in the advance of modern science - the theory of continental drift. Lacking the crucial last piece of the puzzle to convince his peers and normalize his family life, Pitt's emotional equilibrium is stabilised in a magical stroke of fortune when he uncovers a contemporary manuscript written by a fledgling German scientist, Friedrich Muller, which recounts a year (1821) in the company of the irrepressible Syme. Switching between these beguiling and colourful narratives, The Syme Papers takes the reader on an odyssey into the heart of Maryland and Virginia in the 1820s by way of London and Texas today. An epic stew of intellectual procrastination, early nineteenth-century picaresque and late twentieth-century angst, it is a novel of genius and failure; of a man who thought he could prove the world was hollow, and in the glorious process of discovery, broke his own heart. Teeming with comic detail and fierce intelligence, The Syme Papers recreates a time when to question the world and the origins of creation was the greatest project a scientist could undertake.

The Syme Papers

The Syme Papers PDF Author: Benjamin Markovits
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571268315
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 548

Get Book Here

Book Description
Douglas Pitt is a man obsessed. Laughed at, mocked, and dismissed at every turn, Pitt has dedicated the best part of an unremarkable academic career attempting to prove the genius of Samuel Highgate Syme (b.1794, Baltimore; soldier, geologist, inventor). Pitt's postulation is simple enough: Syme, through some fault, wrong-doing, conspiracy or mischance, has not been credited with the recognition he deserves for hitting upon a key discovery in the advance of modern science - the theory of continental drift. Lacking the crucial last piece of the puzzle to convince his peers and normalize his family life, Pitt's emotional equilibrium is stabilised in a magical stroke of fortune when he uncovers a contemporary manuscript written by a fledgling German scientist, Friedrich Muller, which recounts a year (1821) in the company of the irrepressible Syme. Switching between these beguiling and colourful narratives, The Syme Papers takes the reader on an odyssey into the heart of Maryland and Virginia in the 1820s by way of London and Texas today. An epic stew of intellectual procrastination, early nineteenth-century picaresque and late twentieth-century angst, it is a novel of genius and failure; of a man who thought he could prove the world was hollow, and in the glorious process of discovery, broke his own heart. Teeming with comic detail and fierce intelligence, The Syme Papers recreates a time when to question the world and the origins of creation was the greatest project a scientist could undertake.

Historia Augusta Papers

Historia Augusta Papers PDF Author: Ronald Syme
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This volume brings together fifteen studies written since 1972 on the notorious Historia Augusta. Syme advances the theory, supported by computer evidence, that the papers are the work of only one person, rather than six as they purport, and that they were written considerably later than the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine. He argues that, taken as a whole, the papers are a work of "fictional history" and constitute an elaborate and erudite hoax.

Approaching the Roman Revolution

Approaching the Roman Revolution PDF Author: Ronald Syme
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198767064
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
This book presents a series of previously unpublished studies on aspects of the Roman Republic by one of the greatest Roman historians of all time, Sir Ronald Syme (1903-1989), the author of The Roman Revolution.

The Roman Revolution

The Roman Revolution PDF Author: Ronald Syme
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191647187
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 592

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Book Description
The Roman Revolution is a profound and unconventional treatment of a great theme - the fall of the Republic and the decline of freedom in Rome between 60 BC and AD 14, and the rise to power of the greatest of the Roman Emperors, Augustus. The transformation of state and society, the violent transference of power and property, and the establishment of Augustus' rule are presented in an unconventional narrative, which quotes from ancient evidence, refers seldomly to modern authorities, and states controversial opinions quite openly. The result is a book which is both fresh and compelling.

Sallust

Sallust PDF Author: Ronald Syme
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520929101
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
With this classic book, Sir Ronald Syme became the first historian of the twentieth century to place Sallust—whom Tacitus called the most brilliant Roman historian—in his social, political, and literary context. Scholars had considered Sallust to be a mere political hack or pamphleteer, but Syme's text makes important connections between the politics of the Republic and the literary achievement of the author to show Sallust as a historian unbiased by partisanship. In a new foreword, Ronald Mellor delivers one of the most thorough biographical essays of Sir Ronald Syme in English. He both places the book in the context of Syme's other works and details the progression of Sallustian studies since and as a result of Syme's work.

The Syme Papers

The Syme Papers PDF Author: Benjamin Markovits
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780571217915
Category : Continental drift
Languages : en
Pages : 591

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Book Description
Douglas Pitt is a man obsessed. Laughed at, mocked and dismissed at every turn, Pitt has spent the best part of an unremarkable academic career attempting to prove the genius of Samuel Highgate Syme (b 1794, Baltimore; soldier, geologist, inventor). After years of frustration, Pitt finally stumbles into the good fortune he hopes will make his name: he uncovers a manuscript written by a fledgling scientist which recounts a year in the company of the irrespresible Syme. Teeming with comic detail and fierce intelligence, The Syme Papers recreates a time when to question the world and the origin of creation was the greatest project a scientist could undertake. It is a novel of genius and failure; of a man who thought he could prove the world was hollow, and in the glorious process of discover, broke his own heart.

Imposture: A Novel

Imposture: A Novel PDF Author: Benjamin Markovits
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393346269
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
"[Markovits] leaves us wanting, in the most delicious way, more." —Kirsty Gunn, The Observer Lord Byron was the greatest writer and the most notorious, scandalous lover of his age—an irresistible attraction for a sheltered, bookish, and passionate young woman like Eliza Esmond. Eliza believes she’s met Byron on the doorstep of his publisher, and that her dreams have come true when he arranges to meet her in secret. But what if the man she believes to be Byron is someone else—a look-alike named John Polidori, who once toured Europe as Byron’s doctor?

Anatolica

Anatolica PDF Author: Ronald Syme
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781383005400
Category : Geography, Ancient
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Written during the war, while the Sir Ronald Syme (1903-89) was himself in Turkey, this work on ancient Turkey offers a fascinating insight into the development of a great historian, and is itself an original study of the peoples and places of Asia Minor under Persian, Greek, and Roman rule.

Werner's nomenclature of colours, with additions by P. Syme

Werner's nomenclature of colours, with additions by P. Syme PDF Author: Patrick Syme
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Color
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description


The Provincial at Rome

The Provincial at Rome PDF Author: Ronald Syme
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
This volume offers a new insight into the development of a great historian, as well as giving an exciting and immensely readable new approach to late Republican and early Imperial Roman history. Drafted in 1934-35, but laid aside in favour of 'The Roman Revolution' (1939), 'The Provincial at Rome' was to have been Ronald Syme's first book. It is a brilliantly written study of the enlargement of the Roman elite in the early empire, an analysis, in thirteen chapters, of the Emperor Claudius' enrolment of 'Gallic chieftains' into the Senate in AD 48. The edition also includes five unpublished papers dealing with Rome's conquest of the Balkans, a region Syme knew intimately. "