The Star-Gazer

A FULL-LENGTH, careful story ot the life of Galileo Galilei, one of the great men of all time. The author is happy in painting a convincing picture of sixteenth-century Italy, which, as the publishers rightly say, is never one of fancy dress. He succeeds too in presenting a red-blooded Galileo, ardent, intense, passionate for truth, great in achievement, never satisfied. He shows his rise from obscurity, his steady conquest of one difficulty after another, his success and fame — and then the long tragedy of his failing courage. The world and the church were too strong for Galileo; he lived his last years a renegade from truth. This is a powerful and valuable book, honest in design and workmanship. An excellent translation from the Hungarian by Paul Tabor.