‘Art is despair with dignity’

To Father Paperback

To Father

Dava Sobel

Galileo Galilei was at the heart of the most dramatic collision in history between science and religion. But the great Italian scientist was also a loving father who treasured his illegitimate daughter, Virginia. She was perhaps her father’s equal in brilliance, industry and sensibility, and became his greatest source of strength during his most difficult years. Now readers can follow their story, as she told it, in this beautiful volume of her surviving 124 letters to Galileo. Both in their original Italian and translated into English by the author of Galileo’s Daughter, these entrancing letters still speak in the present tense, suspended in the urgency of their once current affairs.

Reviews of To Father

  • ‘Sobel is a stunning talent that continues to sparkle and interest us all as much as the subjects she writes about.’ Guardian

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