Once upon a Prime

The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature

By: Sarah Hart

Narrated by: Sarah Hart

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

This program is read by the author.

"An exuberant enthusiasm for mathematics (and life in general) shines through Dr. Hart." —The New York Times

“An absolute joy to read!" —Steven Levitt, New York Times bestselling author of Freakonomics

"Listeners, however well versed in literature and mathematics, or not, will relish author/narrator Sarah Hart's spirited tour of the long and intimate relationship between the two. Some may find the finer points of her readings of classics like MOBY-DICK and MIDDLEMARCH a bit daunting. But it hardly matters when the narrative is so informed and insightful and the narrator so infused with energy and enthusiasm."- AudioFile

For fans of Seven Brief Lessons in Physics, an exploration of the many ways mathematics can transform our understanding of literature and vice versa, by the first woman to hold England's oldest mathematical chair.

We often think of mathematics and literature as polar opposites. But what if, instead, they were fundamentally linked? In her clear, insightful, laugh-out-loud funny debut, Once Upon a Prime, Professor Sarah Hart shows us the myriad connections between math and literature, and how understanding those connections can enhance our enjoyment of both.

Did you know, for instance, that Moby-Dick is full of sophisticated geometry? That James Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness novels are deliberately checkered with mathematical references? That George Eliot was obsessed with statistics? That Jurassic Park is undergirded by fractal patterns? That Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote mathematician characters? From sonnets to fairytales to experimental French literature, Professor Hart shows how math and literature are complementary parts of the same quest, to understand human life and our place in the universe.

As the first woman to hold England’s oldest mathematical chair, Professor Hart is the ideal tour guide, taking us on an unforgettable journey through the books we thought we knew, revealing new layers of beauty and wonder. As she promises, you’re going to need a bigger bookcase.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Sarah Hart (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"An exuberant enthusiasm for mathematics (and life in general) shines through Dr. Hart."—The New York Times

“An absolute joy to read! Sarah Hart has created something wonderful: from nursery rhymes to Moby-Dick, she uncovers hidden links that I never could have imagined, but which I will never forget.”—Steven Levitt, New York Times bestselling author of Freakonomics

“As an actress and math advocate, I often long for people to see the poetry in mathematics. I love this book. Sarah Hart illuminates hidden patterns and beautiful mathematics in well-known literature in a way that, simply put, fills me with joy. Brava!”—Danica McKellar, actress and New York Times bestselling author

Charming romp through literature

People who love math see it everywhere. This was a delightful listen to someone who has the skills to see the errors and the accuracy in the mathematics in so many other stories. Loved it thoroughly

The Infinite Review

Upon reading a review of "Once Upon a Prime" in "The Economist," I had to make it my next listen. After all, it promised to combine two of my interests - Mathematics and Literature. That was the order in my experience, first Math and then Literature. I studied Math and Economics as an undergraduate, so many of the ideas Dr Hart mentioned were somewhere between very and vaguely familiar to me. After my undergraduate days, I prepared for the Christian ministry with a Master of Divinity degree, always insisting in all seriousness that my Math background was excellent preparation for courses in Hebrew, Greek, History, Biblical Studies, Theology, etc. I eventually became a Great Books fan and ended up doing a PhD in Communication, focusing on Rhetoric. Although my Math books are now Greek to me more than Greek is, I continue intuitively to see the world in terms of numbers, shapes, sizes, proportions, factors, multiples, exponents, patterns, rhythms, etc. To dip my toes back into Math through a book like "Once Upon a Prime" (or Matt Parker's "Humble Pi") is inviting.

I listen to and read many books, but I rate and review almost none of them. However, when I saw that no one had yet rated the Audible version of "Once Upon a Prime," I sensed my opportunity to do something infinite by raising the number of ratings/reviews from zero to one. However, I then realized the weighty responsibility I bore as the lone reviewer. Whatever rating I gave it, that would be 100% of its ratings until someone else chimed in and diluted mine. The will to power possessed me, and what follows is my exercise thereof.

Fortunately, with such a weight on my shoulders, it was easy for me to give "Once Upon a Prime" five stars across the board. Dr Hart delivers on her promise to show the interweaving of Math and Literature, from different angles highlighted in the three (of course) parts of the book, and in a consistently engaging manner. Her explanations are about as easy to follow as possible, although I'm sure most people will struggle with some parts of it (which I think is called education).

The author's reading is pleasant, clear, expressive, and appropriately playful at times. The editing of the audio is excellent, with only one pause that caused me temporary confusion by being too short. Dr Hart's humor is delightfully British (as it seems to this American) - understated and not infrequently self-effacing. She inserts social commentary throughout - especially about prejudice against women, mathematicians, and especially women mathematicians. However, her criticism is gently mocking (British?) instead of scorched-earth (American!) and all the more effective therefore.

One caveat to the would-be listener is that the author refers throughout to the accompanying pdf, which contains diagrams of the concepts she is explaining. For listeners like me, who consume audiobooks while driving, exercising, or working around the house, having to consult a pdf defeats the purpose of an audiobook. Instead, while listening, I took on the challenge to visualize what Dr Hart described and then reviewed the pdf after I finished the whole book. Her diagrams are helpful and would be more so if consulted along the way, but it was also a good exercise to compare my mostly inadequate mental constructions with her diagrams.

A small detail is that Dr Hart's identification of Julius Caesar's substitution cipher as the first known one may not be accurate, since the prophet Jeremiah (verses 25:26 and 51:41) used the atbash cipher, which is 500 years older than Caesar's. The atbash cipher wraps the Hebrew alphabet back on itself so that the first letter alef becomes the last taw, bet becomes sin/shin, and so on, whereas Caesar shifted his three letters ahead. Maybe these two ciphers are in different categories, but they both seem to me to be substitution ciphers. In addition to being more ancient, Jeremiah's seems slightly more clever, so in my book, Jeremiah is greater than Julius.