Title

Circulation: William Harvey’s Revolutionary Idea

Thomas Wright

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Published by Vintage Digital, part of Vintage Publishing

Epub

Format: ebook

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Details

EAN: 9781448138470
Published: 5 Apr 2012

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About the book

Synopsis

“What I am really anxious to hear is the final cause of your monstrous fiction. For your false invention seems to have no purpose. What reason can you give me for the circulation of the blood?”

William Harvey’s theory of circulation was as controversial in its day as Copernicus’ idea that the earth revolved around the sun. Unleashing intellectual anarchy, derailing established ideas, & gaining currency far beyond the walls of the College of Physicians, Harvey’s revolutionary theory went on to permeate the culture and language of 17th century England.

Circulation charts the remarkable rise of the yeoman’s son who demolished beliefs held by anatomists since Roman times, going on to become arguably the greatest Englishman in the history of science after Darwin & Newton.

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What the critics say

A book that combines scholarly science with narrative excitement to spectacular effect
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A concise, skilful and eloquent book
- Guardian

Thomas Wright's book opens brilliantly and bloodily and continues in the same vein...a captivating intellectually gripping journey into our country's scientific past
- Mail on Sunday

In Circulation, Wright tells a good story, warts and all
- Independent

[An] acute, imaginative book
- Sunday Times

The little man of 'perpetual movement' has found a fine advocate in Thomas Wright, whose highly readable Circulation combines recent scholarship with more than a touch of drama
- Times Literary Supplement

Thomas Wright's lucid biography...deftly puts Harvey into his cultural context
- Prospect

As soon as I started this book, I was gripped with curiosity
- Spectator

Thomas Wright's lively little book on Harvey's revolutionary idea is a panegyric to the man's whirring mind, and to the excitements of thinking more generally
- Daily Telegraph

Excellent and often bloodthirsty... A highly readable account of a great Englishman
- Tablet

A vivid biography of William Harvey, which reveals his complex character
- BBC History Magazine

It’s a pretty gruesome story – told very well here by Thomas Wright
- Evening Standard

An engaging and lively account of an endlessly curious man
- Independent

By this author

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About the Author

Thomas Wright was educated at Saint Thomas More RC School, Bedford, and Magdalen College, Oxford. His groundbreaking Oscar's Books (Chatto & Windus, 2008), a portrait of his hero Oscar Wilde though his reading, was hailed by Craig Brown as 'an original and eccentric landmark in the art of literary biography'. His play, Death in Genoa, was recently produced in London and broadcast on website of The Independent. He lives in Oxford.