In his second novel, Mahlers Zeit [Mahler’s Time, 1999], Daniel Kehlmann portrays a young physicist, David Mahler, whose genius blurs with madness. Reviewers generally praise Kehlmann’s accomplished, precise prose and the strength of story in his works. Kehlmann’s novels, including his best-known Die Vermessung der Welt [Measuring the World, 2005], explore the psyches of ambitious minds that try to impose scientific understanding on the natural world; or, conversely, attempt to unlock and appropriate the secrets of nature with occult attempts to overcome nature’s laws, as in Beerholms Vorstellung [Beerholm’s Performance, 1997]. In Mahlers Zeit, Kehlmann introduces the reader to his version of a compulsive physicist who experiences a flash of inspiration; this moment is both his triumph and his undoing, for, in this instant, he formulates a controversial theory. His subsequent attempts to persuade anyone...
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Citation: Simpson, Patricia. "Mahlers Zeit". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21935, accessed 09 June 2026.]
