The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom [Bargain Price] by Simon Winchester (Author). In luxurious and illuminating element, Simon Winchester, the bestselling creator of The Professor and the Madman ("Elegant and scrupulous"-New York Times Book Assessment) and Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing web page-turner"-Time) brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most intently held secrets and techniques of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country.

No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking mental, who practiced nudism and was dedicated to an unusual brand of people dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he immediately fell in love with a visiting Chinese language pupil, with whom he began a lifelong affair.

He soon turned fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a collection of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched in all places for proof to bolster his conviction that the Chinese had been accounted for tons of of mankind's most acquainted improvements-together with printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even restroom paper-often centuries earlier than the remainder of the world. His thrilling and harmful journeys, vividly recreated by Winchester, took him throughout the conflict-torn China to far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for the Chinese language people.

After the warfare, Needham was decided to tell the world what he had found, and commenced writing his majestic Science and Civilisation in China, describing the nation's lengthy and astonishing historical past of invention and technology. By the point he died, he had produced, primarily single-handedly, seventeen immense volumes, marking him as the best one-man encyclopedist ever.

Each epic and intimate, The Man Who Cherished China tells the sweeping story of China of Needham's remarkable life. Here is an unforgettable story of what makes males, nations, and, indeed, mankind itself great-related by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.

This wonderfully written biography of the British scientist Joseph Needham tells two tales - considered one of Needham as a "Renaissance" man and the other of China and its superb contributions to our world. Perhaps most compelling is the story of Needham and his love of China, of life, of ladies, and learning. Simon Winchester writes gracefully and honestly. It was laborious to put this down. 

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom [Bargain Price] 

 Simon Winchester (Author)

336 pages

Harper; 1st Printing edition (May 6, 2008)

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