Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
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Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

James Gleick (Author), Dick Estell (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,542 ratings
#1 Best Seller in Nanostructures in Physics
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From the author of the national best seller Chaos comes an outstanding biography of one of the most dazzling and flamboyant scientists of the 20th century that "not only paints a highly attractive portrait of Feynman but also . . . makes for a stimulating adventure in the annals of science." (The New York Times).

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  1. Listening Length
    20 hours and 5 minutes
  2. Author
    James Gleick
  3. Narrator
    Dick Estell
  4. Audible release date
    February 1, 2011
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B004LQ6MBA
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 20 hours and 5 minutes
Author James Gleick
Narrator Dick Estell
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date February 01, 2011
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B004LQ6MBA
Best Sellers Rank #23,957 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#1 in Nanostructures in Physics
#47 in Biographies of Science & Technology Leaders
#76 in Quantum Theory (Books)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
1,542 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Joshua G. Feldman
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, personal, multifaceted biography of the man at the heart of American quantum physics in the 20th century: Feynman.
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2011
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I picked this up because I'm a big fan of James Gleick, who I consider one of the best science writers around. His book on chaos theory,  Chaos: Making a New Science , changed my life back in the 1980s. His special strength is that he glosses the mathematical tough stuff without losing the interesting heart of the topics at hand. I imagined that he was going to provide some deep insights into Richard Feynman's physics - and Gleick doesn't disappoint here - but this isn't the heart of this book. The heart of this book is Feynman the man - and that makes this much more a biography than a science book. It's tough to write a biography of Richard Feynman because Feynman did such a good job of bringing his personality to the public at large, in famous books of anecdotes such as  Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) . Gleick doesn't skip this charming content, but he puts it in a larger context of the details of Richard Feynman's life: his loves, his career, his challenges and triumphs. It's all here. Feynman's prodigal math skills and his oracular brilliance in his field; his titanic rivalries; particularly the long, sometimes collaborative one with the equally impressive Murray Gell-Mann at Cal-Tech. Gleick gives us a balanced account, moving smoothly from Feynman's colorful childhood in Far Rockaway to MIT to Princeton and his collaboration with his advisor and mentor, the great Archibald Wheeler. We get inside his tragic love with his first wife, Arline - which helps us understand his subsequent almost predatory lady killer ways before he finally settles down. We get deep inside his work on the Manhattan Project where his math genius and special skills on pragmatic real world problems were shown in high relief, along with his disregard for authority, sense of humor, and even his pathos. At the end we find him terminally ill (his recurrent cancers perhaps a distant consequence of his work with radioactive materials) but still the one with the penetrating eye for the heart of the problem and an iconoclastic disregard for sacred cows who cut to the heart of the issue of the Challenger disaster.

I was expecting a dissection of Quantum Electrodynamics from Gleick. We get a little bit of that - but ultimately we get a living, breathing human being, drumming away with relentless energy and precise measured timing. This is a tour de force work of biography. Months later, I am still haunted by it. Feynman had such a rare set of abilities, yet ultimately he was all flesh and blood and mortal. As the world reels from the huge challenges ahead I find myself aching for someone like Feynman to slice into the biggest problems with such ninja flair. I put this in my top ten books I've read in the last decade.
19 people found this helpful
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J. Scott Shipman
4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Account
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2009
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Mr. Gleick's 1992 biography of Richard Feynman is an informative and enlightening journey through not just the life of the subject, but through the exciting world of physics from the early 20th century through the 1980's. While the first 100 pages were a tough read, the remainder was a reward; Feynman's brilliance and brutal honesty are on full display. Mr. Gleick does a nice job also of providing ample background on Feynman's colleagues/competitors/mentors, etc. and provides pretty clear explanations of the concepts brought to life by Feynman & Co. As a biography, this work is first-rate and highly recommended.
4 people found this helpful
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Love Hearts
5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Man
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2023
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I had read two of Feynman's memoirs and was intrigued and entertained by this man with a curious mind and a way of thinking that was light years ahead of his contemporaries. I just happened to be researching past Pulitzer price winners and this one was a finalist. Although I have studied some physics I found the science in this book difficult to understand. However, the biographical parts of the book were fascinating especially his youth and experience with the Manhattan Project while married to his sweetheart who was dying from tuberculosis. HIs womanizing was somewhat shocking but Feynman seemed to have no sense of shame in carrying on an affair with the wife of one of his colleagues in addition to other escapades. He settled down in Pasadena, CA at CalTech where he became legendary as a genius and showman.
One person found this helpful
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Weimdogz
5.0 out of 5 stars Everything and more about Feynman's life and work.
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2023
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A very comprehensive book covering Feynman's life and his work. However one needs to have some knowlege/practice of physics in order to understand a lot of the technical material. But the descriptions of his work with the Manhattan. Project and then the Challenger Disaster are more easily followed. Includes much physics history and developments of the last hundred years along with the giants of physics in those years -- Einstein, Dirac, Fermi, etc. One wishing to read about Feynman might rather read his own two books first (Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman and/or What Do You Care What Other People Think) before attacking this more technical volume. But this is an excellent book for those who can follow/understand the physics. (It covers a lot of atomic structure, electromagnetism, elementary particles, quantum theory, particle accelerators, etc.)
10 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book
Reviewed in Canada on November 29, 2020
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This is an excellent piece of literature. It does take longer to read than most other books, as it forces you to process the information being discussed. Personally, I enjoyed the mental stimulation it provided. Overall it is very well written and provides meaningful insight into Richard Feynman's life.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A tribute that does justice...
Reviewed in India on July 22, 2022
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I have put off reading this book for decades, having read Surely You're Joking... long ago. It is a book to be read when you have time, time to linger, to read and re-read and appreciate the point of view that made him who he was. All I can say is that it doesn't disappoint in any part.

A sublime experience.
2 people found this helpful
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Douglas Teixeira
5.0 out of 5 stars Muito bom, mas de difícil leitura
Reviewed in Brazil on October 4, 2017
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O livro conta a história do físico Richard Feynman e traz um panorama dos desenvolvimentos da física no século passado. Como os demais livros do James Gleick, este livro é bem escrito e interessante, mas é bastante denso em alguns pontos (principalmente nas explicações dos conceitos físicos), o que torna a leitura difícil. Mas no geral o livro é muito bom. E o Richard Feynman é uma pessoa interessantíssima!
2 people found this helpful
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Liam
5.0 out of 5 stars Essentially great, if occasionally wondering off topic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 22, 2019
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This book seems incredibly well researched and although some of the ideas are complex, I think they are well explained. It also offers nice insights to Feynman's mind, and I especially enjoyed the segway where he learnt to crack safes and essentially used logic to more or less be able to access most of the safes at a research centre for the nuclear bomb. There's a number of these where Feynman demonstrates his mischievousness.

That said, occasionally the book meanders a little too off topic. There's literally a 30 page segment on what constitutes a genius around page 300 that for me was like wading through treacle. Perhaps that's a worthy thing to explore, but not here, and it's not done especially well, offering nothing really new. A sop to the book title, I thought... I don't think it's needed at all to clumsily demonstrate just what a genius Feynman was when the rest of the book establishes it plenty. There's a time and a place for the thoughts of Dyson or Oppenheimer, or a funny anecdote or a quote, but this just seemed overblown.

I considered giving it 4 stars but that felt harsh, and I couldn't do 4.5, so it squeaks in with 5. Seriously good, insightful and informative. You really start to appreciate just what Feynman did, leading a team into the explosive components in the atom bomb before he was 25, redefining quantum physics, improving nuclear storage processes (something the author states people working with it were sure he'd saved their lives) to the rocket programme.

As such I would totally recommend. It explains not only Feynman but those central to his life. I have subsequently started reading up on Freeman Dyson, but there's tonnes of other characters to explore.
2 people found this helpful
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César Gámez
5.0 out of 5 stars A true scientist
Reviewed in Mexico on August 26, 2017
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Very well written and documented. I enjoyed it. While learning about his life and achievements, also learned some physics too.
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