Audio only
The Man Who Loved China
The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom"" The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom""By Simon WinchesterNarrated by Simon WinchesterLength9h 13m
About this audiobook
In sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman ("Elegant and scrupulous"—New York Times Book Review) and Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"—Time) brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country.
No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair.
He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of mankind's most familiar innovations—including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper—often centuries before the rest of the world. His thrilling and dangerous journeys, vividly recreated by Winchester, took him across war-torn China to far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for the Chinese people.
After the war, Needham was determined to tell the world what he had discovered, and began writing his majestic Science and Civilisation in China, describing the country's long and astonishing history of invention and technology. By the time he died, he had produced, essentially single-handedly, seventeen immense volumes, marking him as the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever.
Both epic and intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China through Needham's remarkable life. Here is an unforgettable tale of what makes men, nations, and, indeed, mankind itself great—related by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (6.3K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon, StoryGraph
GenreBiography and Memoir, History
Length9 hrs 13 mins
Narrated bySimon Winchester
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateMay 6, 2008
LanguageEnglish
More from Simon Winchester
LandSimon Winchester13h 47m3.9 (5.8K)$5 · $0.00
PacificSimon Winchester14h 3m4.1 (6.2K)$33 · $0.00
The Breath of the GodsSimon Winchester13h 52m3.8 (615)$33 · $0.00
Knowing What We KnowSimon Winchester14h 19m3.9 (2.5K)$33 · $0.00
AtlanticSimon Winchester14h 30m3.9 (13.8K)$33 · $0.00
The PerfectionistsSimon Winchester11h 46m4.2 (9.9K)$29 · $0.00
The Men Who United the StatesSimon Winchester13h 34m4.0 (5.6K)$33 · $0.00
The Alice Behind WonderlandSimon Winchester2h 44m3.7 (1K)$18 · $0.00
The Professor and The MadmanSimon Winchester7h 20m4.0 (178K)$24 · $0.00
The Meaning of EverythingSimon Winchester7h 19m4.1 (8.4K)$24 · $0.00
A Crack in the Edge of the WorldSimon Winchester12h 31m4.0 (10.6K)$33 · $0.00
KrakatoaSimon Winchester12h 1m4.0 (37K)$8 · $0.00
The Map That Changed the WorldSimon Winchester10h4.0 (21.3K)$7 · $0.00
How to Test Negative for StupidJohn Kennedy8h 13m4.7 (9.7K)$28 · $0.00
Defying JihadEsther Ahmad8h 50m4.7 (4.8K)$20
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m4.7 (2.8K)$24 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m4.7 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m4.7 (2.2K)$17
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m4.7 (1.1K)$1.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m4.8 (179)$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m4.8 (141)$24 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (384)$20 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
Pearl of Great PriceJoseph Smith3h 8m4.7 (7.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Redeemer’s ReturnArthur W. Pink13h 18m4.7 (589)$20
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 9m4.8 (150)$1.99 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m4.6 (2.3K)$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
The Red Record (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett5h 19m4.8 (102)$1.99 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m4.6 (159.1K)$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m4.6 (40.8K)$20
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
You may also like
Finding ZeroAmir D. Aczel5h 56m3.8 (1.5K)$20
Fossil MenKermit Pattison15h 21m4.3 (2.9K)$33 · $0.00
The History of the Standard Oil Company (Complete Illustrated Edition) (Annotated)Ida Minerva Tarbell33h 47m4.2 (3.6K)$1.99 · $0.00
Why They MarchedSusan Ware9h 12m4.1 (1.4K)$20
The Forgotten ManAmity Shlaes14h 34m4.1 (8.2K)$33 · $0.00
1434Gavin Menzies9h 53m3.6 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
Great StateTimothy Brook18h 17m4.1 (612)$40 · $0.00
The Big ChangeFrederick Lewis Allen11h 48m4.2 (607)$2 · $0.00
Practicing HistoryBarbara W. Tuchman12h 52m4.2 (2.3K)$23
A Treatise on Christian LibertyMartin Luther3h 43m4.3 (4.5K)$1 · $0.00
Studies In Classic American LiteratureD. H. Lawrence6h 51m4.1 (1.5K)$2.30
The Future of NutritionT. Colin Campbell PhD11h 6m4.2 (1.2K)$20
Power, Inc.David Rothkopf16h 33m4.1 (303)$30 · $0.00
The Painted WordTom Wolfe2h 6m3.9 (9.1K)$10
Becoming the Superpowers: John Dewey's Reflections on U.S.A., China & JapanJohn Dewey8h 46m$2 · $0.00
Herzegovina; Or, Omer Pacha and the Christian RebelsGeorge Arbuthnot6h 53m$2 · $0.00
The Copernicus of Antiquity (Aristarchus of Samos) (Annotated)Thomas Little Sir Heath2h 49m4.1 (18)$2 · $0.00
Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Robert Malthus, 1810-1823David Ricardo10h 53m4.5 (10)$1 · $0.00
The Three Cities Trilogy: RomeÉmile Zola27h 32m3.6 (141)$2.30
The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in EuropeBooker T. Washington, Robert Ezra Park4h 23m4.1 (41)$1.99 · $0.00