An Astronomer in Love, by Antoine Laurain (Gallic Books)
I loved this combination of the historical adventures of the
18th Century French astronomer, Guillaume Le Gentil de la Galaisière,
and a modern-day love story. Le Gentil was part of an international effort (proposed
by none other than Edmond Halley of Halley’s Comet) to measure the distance to
the Sun, by observing the transit of
Venus at different points on the Earth and triangulating the
distance. The transit of Venus occurs when Venus passes between the Earth and
the Sun and can be visualized against the brightness of the Sun. (I was
fortunate enough to view this in 2012, using proper eye protection, of course.)
Le Gentil’s expedition was a saga of one
disaster after another, including his ship being blown off-course (for the 1761
transit), after which he remained in India for 8 more years until overcast
weather made observation of the 1769 transit impossible. By the time he
returned to Paris, everyone believed he was dead, and he had quite a time
recovering his property and position.
Two and a half centuries later, Parisian realtor Xavier
Lemercier chances upon Guillaume’s telescope. It’s turned up in a locked closet
in an apartment he had once sold, and the new owner wants nothing to do with
it. When Xavier sets it up, he inadvertently spies the apartment across the
way, inhabited by a zebra (taxidermied, he later finds out) and a beautiful
woman. She walks into his office, much to his surprise, in search of new digs.
In the process, romance blossoms, aided by their children, who have become best
friends. Now he has to find a way to confess that he was spying on her without
the whole affair blowing up.
The two stories alternate in an interwoven pattern as Xavier
discovers the telescope and becomes intrigued by Guillaume’s story. Guillaume’s
adventures are dramatic enough to fill volumes and he was apparently a prolific
diarist. I like to think that if they ever met, they would have appreciated one
another.
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