In this authoritative, absorbing biography of Andre-Marie Ampere, James Hofmann examines the extraordinary life of a man who made original and significant contributions to mathematics and chemistry and who is renowned for creating a new branch of physics - electrodynamics.

Ampere's accomplishments are remarkable in view of the tumultuous and often tragic events that punctuated his personal life: the death of his father by guillotine during the French Revolution; the early death of his beloved first wife and a brief and disastrous second marriage. With no formal education, Ampere was encouraged by a caring and protective family circle to embrace both the optimistic scientific outlook of the Enlightenment and a devotion to the Catholic faith. It was this combination of intellectual expectation and emotional spiritually that made Ampere's genius both destructive and extraordinarily creative.

This biography of Andre-Marie Ampere, the only one available in the English language, illuminates the scientific contributions of an individual and his epoch, and provides a fascinating insight into the workings of the scientific mind.