Books: Planet Seer

THE STAR-GAZER—Zsolt de Harsanyi —Putnam ($2.75).

The biographer of a man three centuries dead has his choice of producing a work of scholarship or of telling a story. If he tells a story he might as well call it fiction because that it will largely be. As such it may nevertheless be an illuminating piece of historical literature, as are Robert Graves's two stories of a Roman emperor (I, Claudius and Claudius, the God). Or it may reach the second-rate level of a plausible, readable and honest tale like The Star-Gazer, which is a freely fictional novel of the life of Galileo.

Hungarian...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!