Copenhagen
by Michael Frayn

Name: Copenhagen
Brand: Michael Frayn
SKU: 9780413724908
Rating: 3.91 (6795 reviews)

Copenhagen Book Cover — Copenhagen Cover

Highlights

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120 minsBritish

What readers are saying

Readers consistently praise Copenhagen for its thought-provoking dialogue and intricate themes surrounding physics, morality, and friendship. Many find the exploration of the historical meeting between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg incredibly engaging, both as a play and a reading experience. The unique structure focusing on philosophical conversations keeps audiences captivated, sparking curiosity about the complexities of science and human motives.

Engaging philosophical dialogueIntriguing historical contextThought-provoking themesBrilliantly written charactersSome scientific language may confuse readers

Synopsis

In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a strange trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr.

They were old friends and close colleagues, and they had revolutionised atomic physics in the 1920s with their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle.

But now the world had changed, and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war.

The meeting was fraught with danger and embarrassment, and ended in disaster.

Why the German physicist Heisenberg went to Copenhagen in 1942 and what he wanted to say to the Danish physicist Bohr are questions which have exercised historians of nuclear physics ever since.

In Michael Frayn's new play Heisenberg meets Bohr and his wife Margrethe once again to look for the answers, and to work out, just as they had once worked out the internal functioning of the atom, how we can ever know why we do what we do.

'Michael Frayn's tremendous new play is a piece of history, an intellectual thriller, a psychological investigation and a moral tribunal in full session.' Sunday Times

ThemesHeisenberg, Werner , 1901-1976 Physicists Nuclear physics Nuclear physics--Drama Nuclear warfare--Moral and ethical aspects Nuclear warfare--Moral and ethical aspects--Drama Physicists--Drama PR6056.R3 C64 1998 World War, 1939-1945--Science World War, 1939-1945--Science--Drama