This is a story of love and astronomy; music and silence; secrets and truth-telling; of world-changing discoveries, and unrequited desire. Moving from York in the 1780s to Regency Bath, and then to Hanover in the 1840s, it concerns the lives of three people-all astronomers. There is Caroline, torn between her passion for music and her passion for the stars; John, deaf from childhood, whose extraordinary mathematical gifts afford him perspectives not available to others; and Edward, friend and mentor to Caroline and to John, who must conceal his innermost feelings from them both. All three find fulfilment in the heavens for the set- backs and disappointments they encounter on earth. All three, in time, come to know the truth about variable stars.
Variable Stars
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.75
Trade in Variable Stars for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.75, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Learn more
|
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By David
Format:Paperback
Anyone who has read Richard Holmes' wonderful book about scientists and romantics
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science will remember Caroline Hershel, sister and amanuensis of William,who discovered Uranus, and no mean astronomer herself. Christina Koning places Caroline at the centre of her new novel, Variable Stars, and paints a rich and complex picture of the astronomical and personal adventures and misadventures of Caroline and William Hershel, along with their contempories, including Edward Piggot and John Goodrick. I love writers who mix science with personal drama, whether fiction, Turbulence: Foden or faction Galileo's Daughter: A Drama of Science, Faith and Love.
The knack, which Koning readily accomplishes, is not to subject one to the other, but to give both science and life equal place. So the variable stars of the title are both an astronomical phenomenon and a metaphor for the lives and loves of the principal characters. As befits a novel set between 1764 and 1840, there is much unrequited love, lives lived within the constraints of an oppressive social order, and so much left unsaid for so long. Scientific discovery,in Caroline's case of a number of comets, provides liberation. Towards the end of her long life she recalls the night she found her first comet. "A Summer's night it was, and glittering with stars. How her heart had leapt, when she knew what it was she saw!"
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science will remember Caroline Hershel, sister and amanuensis of William,who discovered Uranus, and no mean astronomer herself. Christina Koning places Caroline at the centre of her new novel, Variable Stars, and paints a rich and complex picture of the astronomical and personal adventures and misadventures of Caroline and William Hershel, along with their contempories, including Edward Piggot and John Goodrick. I love writers who mix science with personal drama, whether fiction, Turbulence: Foden or faction Galileo's Daughter: A Drama of Science, Faith and Love.
The knack, which Koning readily accomplishes, is not to subject one to the other, but to give both science and life equal place. So the variable stars of the title are both an astronomical phenomenon and a metaphor for the lives and loves of the principal characters. As befits a novel set between 1764 and 1840, there is much unrequited love, lives lived within the constraints of an oppressive social order, and so much left unsaid for so long. Scientific discovery,in Caroline's case of a number of comets, provides liberation. Towards the end of her long life she recalls the night she found her first comet. "A Summer's night it was, and glittering with stars. How her heart had leapt, when she knew what it was she saw!"
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By J. F. James
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
'Variable Stars' tells the story of three 18thC/19thC astronomers, whose lives were as full of emotional complexity, love, desire, disappointment and excitement, as any of the more obviously bright stars of their day - a Byron or a Blake. I had heard of William Herschel, but I hadn't realised his sister Caroline made many astronomical discoveries in her own right, initially while assisting him; Christina Koning portrays the reality of sitting out in the cold, night after night, fascinated but frozen, with all the household responsibilities still to attend to the next morning, from jugging hares to juggling the household accounts. Caroline is attracted to intelligent and agreeable fellow astronomer, Mr Pigott, and we wonder, with her, if he will return her affections - but only when we hear the story from his point of view, and then from that of the romantic figure of John Goodricke, mathematical genius and deaf-mute, do we discover what passions, hardships and responsibilities are entwined in all their lives, and those of their friends and families.
Koning has a gift for bringing to life her setting and characters - whether through the language we recognise from Jane Austen, the formality of address, the small domestic details, or the larger questions of the struggle to understand the world we live in - the meanings of patterns of brightness in stars, and the equally variable fortunes of those of us on earth. It's an intelligent and absorbing story - I wanted to read on to the end to find out what happened, but didn't want the experience to end!
Koning has a gift for bringing to life her setting and characters - whether through the language we recognise from Jane Austen, the formality of address, the small domestic details, or the larger questions of the struggle to understand the world we live in - the meanings of patterns of brightness in stars, and the equally variable fortunes of those of us on earth. It's an intelligent and absorbing story - I wanted to read on to the end to find out what happened, but didn't want the experience to end!
Format:Paperback
I am not normally one for historical fiction; I tend to prefer my history and my fiction clearly separate. In this case, though, the historical context functions as a convincing context for the more speculative aspects of the book, and the line between what "really" happened and what *might* have happened is generally (and, I think, intentionally) clearly drawn throughout. The novel focuses on the 18th-century astronomer William Herschel's sister Caroline, who probably deserves as much credit as her brother, but (as the _Guardian_ reviewer puts it) suffers "the indignities of playing second fiddle to genius". This human drama played out against the backdrop of the stars is well worth a read.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see the review
5.0 out of 5 stars
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Have not read it yet
Do not know what to say because I have not read this book yet. Have a pile of books to read.
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. Sma Beament
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful observation
This accomplished novel explores the hidden relationships between a group of key astronomers of the late eighteenth, nineteenth century revealed through their observations on their... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Book -devourer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Novel
I think this is Christina Koning's best novel yet. I particularly like her beautiful use of the English language. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it and highly recommend it.
Published 14 months ago by Andrea Marlow
5.0 out of 5 stars
intelligent Romance
Variable Stars makes brilliant use of some of the more usual props of Romantic fiction - an almost Cinderella-like scene of fleeting happiness at a ball was wonderfully intense and... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Patricia Ferguson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Glorious Firmament
Christina Koning has written the very best sort of historical novel. She takes the little-known (at least by me) stories of the astronomer siblings Caroline and William Herschel... Read more
Published 21 months ago by M. J. Arditti
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
