William Harvey

"[Wright] absolutely does justice to his subject. Bravo." -- The Times (London, England), Vivenne Parry
'Thomas Wright's acute, imaginative book' -- Sunday Times, April 1, 2012. John Carey
'In Circulation, Wright tells a good story, warts and allEL Wright reconstructs the research ... [and] is attentive to the world in which his subject lived. The semi-medieval conditions of life at the universities of Cambridge and Padua are well-described." -- Duncan Wu, The Independent
"Thomas Wright's lucid biography deftly puts Harvey into his cultural context" -- Hermione Eyre, Prospect
"Thomas Wright's lively little book on Harvey's revolutionary idea is a panegyric to the man's whirring mind, and to the excitements of thinking more generally." -- Helen Brown, The Daily Telegraph (4 stars)
"As soon as I started the book, I was gripped with curiosity." -- William Leith, Spectator
"Thomas Wright's book opens brilliantly and bloodily and continues in the same vein... a captivating, intellectually gripping journey into our country's scientific past." -- Druin Birch, Mail on Sunday
"A fascinating narration of a largely untold story." -- Peter Ackroyd, British author
"[A] sprightly new study... Wright has written a concise, skillful and often eloquent book." -Charles Nicholl, The Guardian
"Wright's (Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde) "biography of an idea as much as... of a man" presents a wonderful portrait not only of physician William Harvey but also of the changing face of the study of medicine and scientific inquiry in Europe in the early 17th century...Other essays muse on broader cultural concepts such as metaphorical understandings of the heart and the extension of Harvey's ideas even beyond where he himself was comfortable. Wright pulls these threads together to create an enjoyably enlightening history of science, with more than enough backgr