Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Cover scans
Click a cover for a larger version.
Synopsis
A (very fictionalized) account, in comic form, of the life of Bertrand Russell. The book opens with one of the authors explicitly breaking the fourth wall, talking to the reader, and explaining the purpose of the work. The rest of the book follows an old Russell as he's giving a lecture in 1939, three days after Hitler's invasion of Poland, about his journey from childhood to established mathematician. It's this journey that forms the meat of the book.
Review
I really enjoyed this work, but not particularly being a fan of graphic novels, I don't know about the quality. In any event, if you want to learn about the life of Bertrand Russell, the history of logic, and something about the tortured lives of the early logicians (excluding the Greeks, of course), and you don't want to read a text book, this one's for you.
And besides, how often do you see a comic book with a bibliography?
Table of contents
- Overture
- 1. Pembroke Lodge
- 2. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
- 3. Wanderjahre
- 4. Paradoxes
- Entracte
- 5. Logico-Philosophical Wars
- 6. Incompleteness
- Finale
- Notebook
- Bibliography