Einstein's Dreams

By Alan Lightman

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.

“A magical, metaphysical realm ... Captivating, enchanting, delightful.” —The New York Times

Einstein’s Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, about time, relativity and physics. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar.

Now translated into thirty languages, Einstein’s Dreams has inspired playwrights, dancers, musicians, and painters all over the world. In poetic vignettes, it explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307789747

Alan Lightman

Alan Lightman is a physicist, novelist, and essayist. He was educated at Princeton University and at the California Institute of Technology, where he received a PhD in theoretical physics. Lightman is the author of five novels, including the international bestseller Einstein’s Dreams, two collections of essays, a book-­length narrative poem, and several books on science. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Granta, The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. 

Reviews for Einstein's Dreams

[thriftyserendipity · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting, thought provoking book. Quick read.

[isatyajeet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this in one sitting (2-3 hours), and I found it to be highly imaginative, thought-provoking and very well written. Lightman invites you to participate in explorations regarding the nature of time seen from the eyes of an acquaintance of Einstein during the time he formulated his theories of relativity. The different interpretations of time gives rise to different existential problems, and the book gives brief, intriguing descriptions of them.
In each chapter, the reader is invited to imagine a world where time works in a particular way, and to consider the consequences. In one world, time is a perfect circle that repeats itself endlessly. In a different scenario, time stands still. Then time is a quality, not a quantity. We are even shown a place where time does not exist at all, and there are only images. Sometimes these visions of an alternative reality are described as abstract philosophical musings - in a world where people live forever, we suppose that there are those who will seek to cram as much as possible into their infinite existence (the 'Nows'), whilst others will procrastinate endlessly (the 'Laters').

Take out 2 hours, and READ THIS

[msaucier818 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a very difficult book to read. It is a short book with many short chapters that each tell a different fictional story that takes a unique look at how the concept of time works. The ideas are based off of Einstein and his theory of relativity (Einstein is the subject of a few interlude chapters), and they certainly make the reader think about how we view time as a society. I liked the fact that it made me think, but I would have liked some of the chapter to maybe flesh out their ideas more before quickly ending and moving on to the next idea.

[aliceap-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love science. I also love learning about scientific theories and the scientists who brought them to light. Initially, I thought Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman was a true account of how Einstein came up with his theory of time (relativity). Instead this collection contains fictionalized diary entries (dream journal style) from 1905. Each dream accounts for a different way to view time and is set up almost as if they take place in alternate realities. Maybe all events are fixed and predetermined so time is meaningless. Or perhaps there's a world where the closer you get to the center of a location the slower you move until you are arrested completely. Do you think there's a place where those living in higher altitudes age slower than those below? I don't even know if I could handle the world where immortality is a given and so you are forced to live and live and live. In between each of the 'diary' entries, Lightman writes about Einstein processing each of these dreams and honing his eventual theory of relativity. [Bonus: Beautiful pen and ink drawings of Berne scattered throughout.] As I said at the beginning, I started off thinking this was going to be a non-fiction biography of sorts but I think I like this even better. If you're looking for a short little dip into the dimensions of time and how they might look based on your reality then you've hit the jackpot. This is the best kind of sci-fi surprise! 9/10

[edwinbcn · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Alan Lightman is a foremost American physicist, and the author of Einstein's Dreams. It is essentially an essay disguised as a novel. The novel as a form of fiction is plastic and flexible, and so is the essay. The narrative is confusing and rather uninteresting, and it isn't very clear where all is fictional or based to some extent in fact. Centred around Albert Einstein's dreams while working on his Theory of Relativity the reader is invited to ponder issues of time. Whether novel or essay, the hype over this work and the expectation it creates in the reader, only resukts in disappointment.

[delta351 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To establish a baseline, I need to say that my understanding of physics is equal to that of a 3 yr old. I understand some of the info in this books, and much of it is incomprehensible to me.The following are my favorite chapters:19 April aka red hat- "An object has three perpendicular directions- horizontal, vertical and longitudinal.So an object or person can have three perpendicular futures." I don't understand the relationship b/t directions and futures, esp why a future would be limited to three possible outcomes. Isn't it believed there may be an unlimited number of alternate futures?28 Apr Clock time vs time that people experience personally14 May Center of time, a place where time stands still. Moves faster the farther from the center you are.20 May No memory exists2 June Time flows in reversep 116 Does time exist outside human perception?

[raignn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. At the basic level, each chapter (which are usually ~4 pages) is it's own vignette about time and different kinds of time. I recommend picking it up.

[tracyrowan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've read through about a dozen reviews so far and I'm rather surprised that no one seems to have gone beyond the obvious discussion of this book. We all see that these are interesting vignettes about how time might behave in different realities. But beyond that, these are vignettes about how we live. Take, for example, the vignette about the world where you can gain time by moving faster and faster. Because time is money, businesses fly about the town on wheels, powered by huge engines. Inside the office building, desks zip around each floor. The faster the workers move, the greater their productivity. There is one problem though, that of perception of the velocity of others. And sometimes a worker will become so upset by his perception that others are moving faster than he is, he will stop moving at all. He will retire to his home, pull down the shades and live within his family. Live a simple, content life without all the rushing about. This is a pretty clear metaphor for the increasing speed at which we live, and those who reject the need to live in that manner.Some vignettes are simple to interpret -- the world where time moves more and more slowly until, as you get to the center of the town, it almost stops. People go there to preserve a childhood, a love, their lives. A kiss can be nearly infinite. Children grow more slowly than redwoods, and never lose their innocence. Some are more difficult. But each one carries some deeper meaning about human life, and how we choose to live it. And the narrative of Einstein as a patent clerk echoes those ideas, as you watch the choices he's made.This book isn't simply about bringing together science and literature, it's about science and philosophy, science and human nature. It's about how each of us lives so differently, we might all be living in a different temporal reality. Quite simply, it's a wonderful book, that will make you think, and stay with you for a long time. Highly recommended.

[kslade-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting little book speculating about nature of time and if it was different. Very poetic. Should have read it more quickly. Best in one sitting. Einstein's young life is central to it.

[awesame-346787 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Whimsical, imaginative writing about a series of universes, each of which interpret time slightly differently. Loosely based as a conceptual narrative of Einstein's dreams while he was working on his theory of time.

[cziering-146878 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really cool idea! I read the first chapter and decided I needed to own it. Each chapter is a short scene about a different concept of time. Some familiar some extremely foreign.

[greeniezona · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'd read this in college and was absolutely delighted by it. This second read was for family story time. A young Einstein dreams each night of cities and worlds where time works differently than it does in this one, each story exploring ramifications of what if time and light operated differently -- what would living in those worlds look like?A lovely and charming exploration.

[rajivc_18 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'd say that this book is for those who like physics. The book offers interludes in which Einstein talks with his friend, Besso(?).The chapters themselves are depictions of dreams. Einstein's dreams. Of course, this is fantasy, as we have no way of knowing what Einstein dreamed about. Yet, they are fascinating - alternative realities, time bending over, and all sorts of stuff woven together in short, independent narratives. This is mind-bending stuff and is enjoyable, to say the least. There are some fascinating paragraphs that may help you look at life in a different way.

[pauntley · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pleasantly engaging, faintly melancholy in its reflections - an expected tone when Time is the subject - rarely revelatory. I expected something more in the way of disorientation.

[murderbydeath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not quite what I thought it was going to be, but interesting and thought-provoking nonetheless. My expectations were more along the lines of a fictional re-creation of Einstein's musings concerning the physics of time as depicted through his daydreams. I was almost right. Instead, each entry is more akin to a thought experiment, where the character Einstein draws out every idiom concerning time to it's farthest conclusion. What would the world be like if time were frozen? If we lived in the past? Only for today? Only looked ahead? Some of the entries come closer to aspects of his theory of general relativity than others. Some are far more philosophical than empirical. Some had, to my way of thinking, fundamental flaws in their logic, making the entry impossible (although I attribute this to the author, not the character). But all of them are thought provoking and each would serve as fodder for endless debates and conversations, given the right two or more people. I'm glad I've read it, although I think Please, Mr. Einstein a far more compelling and meaningful fictional exercise. Definitely worth a read if you're in a philosophical mood but don't want to be weighted down under anything too heavy.

[bornanalog · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Diverting, but less profound or innovative than it appears to be at first glance.

[jaredorlando-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams is a brilliant look at Time, through the fictional eyes of a man who knows a little bit about it. Beautiful, intelligent, and full of mind-bending philosophical concepts, it is a must read.

[pw0327 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fine little book; a famous little book; and a clever little book.I came upon this book late, even though I had heard of the book before, but I didn’t pay enough heed to the hype to start reading earlier.This book is a neat exercise in thought experimentation by a physicist. He is having a little fun as well as showing off his physics chops.Even though I knew what Lightman is trying to do, I was surprised slightly when he jumped straight into the tales of relativity. The stories were, at first, seemingly unrelated to one another, it isn’t until a little further up the road that the theme of the stories established themselves. Thus begins a short but charming ride through the theory of relativity as illustrated through vignettes starring the citizenry of the good people of Bern. The story moves along with dates serving as names of the chapters and Lightman weaving the sequence of tales as he uses the stories to explain the physics. The book is structured so that there is no structure. It is reminiscent of Italo Calvino’s books. The stories come at you in short quick bursts with seemingly no connection between them, but in the end there is an overriding theme to it all.The beauty of the book is that you can enjoy the gentle tales and be charmed by the oddities built within the stories or you can add another dimension to the tales by actually understanding the specifics of the theory of relativity and drawing the parallels between the stories and the relativity. I had an inkling about the physics, having been exposed to it during my undergrad days but I am obviously not an expert in the dark arts of theoretical physics, yet I thoroughly enjoyed the book beyond just the charming stories.

[judygibson-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is listed as a novel, and I guess you can call it that. But it's really a series of little (5 small pages) vignettes of speculations about what the world would be like if time operated differently than it does on ours, framed by brief episodes of Einstein as he works on finalizing his theories for publication. I found the stories sweet and charming.

[jrobinw · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent writing that shows all the ways time impacts our lives.

[grandpahobo_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I finished this in one day. The writing is evocative and lyrical. Each essay presents a different concept of time by illustrating how it would affect human behavior. In many cases, they illustrate how people actually view time and how that view can be detrimental.

[annbury_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For me this book is structured more like music than like prose -- a set of variations on the theme of time, not a novelistic examination of the topic. Lightman's "hero" is the young Einstein, living in Bern in 1905, working in a patent office but spending all his energies on his theory of relativity. But it isn't Einstein's daytime life that is the subject of this book, though that is touched on in a prologue, three interludes, and an epilogue. Rather, what matters here are thirty chapters showing us thirty different dreams that Einstein has about time. These explore different ways in which time might work, and the ways in which people would react under those assumptions, and they are altogether delightful. Some read like visions, some like the premises of sci-fi stories, some like -- dreams. The writing is beautiful, highly concrete about physical detail and more than occasionally witty, both of which help anchor these visions. I don't have the scientific knowledge to appreciate some of what is going on -- some of the different varieties of time, I am told, reflect thinking about relativity and other great matters. But I didn't need it to enjoy this book a great deal. Those who love Calvino's "Invisible Cities" may be particularly entranced.

[steve_walker-348810 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a physically small book that sneaks up on you and does not let you go. I found myself re-reading it days and months after I "officially" finished it. In a series of vignettes Lightman presents the ideas of Einstein's Theories of General and Special Relativity. One has the feeling of experiencing the stories as a series of dreams. There is a haunting quality to the scenes and characters encountered. Hard science is presented in a understandable fashion and the characters portrayed are souls that reader recognizes and sympathizes with. This little book will become a classic in time.

[kvrfan9 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Do I have time to write this review? Do you have time to read it? How do you know? By what standard do you measure time? Mechanically? Organically? Metaphysically?

In this beautifully written book, Alan Lightman muses upon the nature of time. His approach is to imagine a series of dreams Albert Einstein had while developing his theory of relativity as an anonymous clerk laboring away in the patent office at Berne. The dreams are short-- three to four pages each--and play off the everyday images Einstein that would have been familiar to him from his life in Berne. Lightman is a genius with the images. His doctorate is in theoretical physics, but he writes like a poet. Each dream is one to savor.

And each emphasizes the relativity of time. What temporally conditioned conditioned creatures we all are! Ultimately, Einstein's Dreams makes me marvel at the place we inhabit within this marvelously complex Universe.

[flying_monkeys_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Each dream explored the relationship between humans and time.Fun times infinity! My brain is all tingly right now. After the first chapter, about five pages long, I knew I was gonna have to buy my own copy of Einstein's Dreams. There were dozens of worlds to explore and ponder, and one reading just won't do it. I would love, love, love to read longer stories set in any of those worlds. So I'll be reading more of Lightman's fiction in the near future. Or maybe I won't? Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow not knowing I ever read it the first time?5 stars

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Alan Lightman is a physicist. In this fiction debut he imagines the kinds of dreams Einstein might have had in the spring and early summer of 1905, when he was a patent clerk in Switzerland, and working on his theory of relativity. Each chapter is a different flight of fancy. In one time is a circle bending back on itself, so that the world repeats itself precisely, endlessly. In another Time has three dimensions, so that there are three perpendicular futures; at every point of decision the world splits into three worlds, each with the same people, but different fates for those people. In one world Time is absolute, with clocks everywhere all in sync; in anther, Time is a local phenomenon, flowing at different speeds in different locations. In one dream people live for only one day – a baby born in December will never know daffodils or summer berries, while one born in July will never see snow. In another dream, people live forever.

This collection of essays on “relativity of time” is engaging, interesting, fascinating, and thought-provoking. The writing is beautiful, with an ethereal quality reminiscent of dreams.

Some examples:

On this late afternoon, in these few moments while the sun is nestled in a snowy hollow of the Alps, a person could sit beside the lake and contemplate the texture of time.

The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or of joy. The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present. Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone.

Dawn. A salmon fog floats through the city, carried on the breath of the river. The sun waits beyond the Nydegg Bridge, throws its long, reddened spikes along Kramgasse to the giant clock that measures time, illuminates the underside of balconies. Sounds of morning drift through the streets like the smell of bread.

And from my favorite dream (because I have always visualized time, though not in the sense of foreseeing the future…)
In this world, time is a visible dimension. Just as one may look off in the distance and see houses, trees, mountain peaks that are landmarks in space, so one may look out in another direction and see births, marriages, deaths that are signposts in time, stretching off dimly into the far future.

There is no real plot to this work of fiction. So readers who need a strong story arc may not like it. But I loved it. The whole time I was reading I felt as if I had just awoken and could recall images but not quite grasp the full text of a dream.

[pussreboots · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I Love LOVE LOVED this book and it was over too quickly. I could have kept going with even more stories of different worlds with different types of time. It was just the most sensuous retelling of the Theory of Relativity. I'll have to purchase a copy of this for my husband.

[becky221_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked the idea of the book and the brevity. I did not like the writing style of the author (too contrived and at times, simplistic). I would have appreciated less quantity and more quality; in other words I would have enjoyed three or four "dreams" that explored a world that Einstein's theories predicted rather than so many illogical ones.

[wethewatched · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's quite fitting that a book about the movement of time is so quick and compelling! If you've ever wondered why some events seem to move faster than others, this novel is sure to intrigue.

[tivonut · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Had to restart this after reading a couple of the dreams and then putting it down for months.

Hmm... well I understand why some people really like this and some of the dreams are very though provoking for me as well. The problem is some of the dreams are almost redundant and repetitive, whether compared to another dream already described or within the dream itself, and others don't quite work.

Two dreams that I can remember that I had problems with were, the Benjamin Button type of time flow, where the people are getting younger and heading towards their youth. This is a bit different because your memories are of the past, and you are looking forward to those times. One of the times he proposes is when a wife meets her husband for the first time and that first kiss. I would argue that you dread getting to that first kiss because it marks the ending. Yet he describes it like time is moving forward in the meeting. You can have it one way or the other, not both.

OK, another dream I had problems with was a life is lived in a day, whether it is because we move faster or the earth moves slower, everyday marks about a human lifetime. I thought this to be a very interesting premise but, he talks about people that are born at sunset living their prime in the dark and those born at sunrise living their prime in the sun. He argues that the sunset people would be more centered in the indoors and indoor activities with erudite profession, whereas the sunrise people would be more outdoors with outdoors professions like farming. When those sunset people in the middle of their lives had their world turn into brightness, they would be blinded and pull the shades living as hermits. The sunrise people, when the day turned to night, would be depressed by the darkness and not being able to continue with their activities. Both not being happy at the end of their lives. I don't agree with this. One, night does not turn to day with a flick of a switch or vise versa. Two, people would be born somewhere in the middle of the night or day and all would learn that the "seasons" of life was about, what?, 40 years, where light turns to dark. They would be planning on the change. 40 years is not that long to forget.

So there were a number of dreams I had problems with but at least I found them interesting, then there were the dreams that were just kinda boring and repetitive, and then the ones that made you think. Those that caught your attention and made you think were the heart of this book and made it good. But for me, because you had to wade through the "just good but flawed" and then the boring ones, I don't think this is as great as some other reviewers do.

It is a short book so if you want to envision different thoughts on how time flows (and doesn't flow) and you are willing to be bored by some, amazed by some, and just be thoughtful on others (and how they many not work), then read it. I enjoyed it.