Measuring the World is a 2005 novel by German author Daniel Kehlmann

Daniel Kehlmann

Daniel Kehlmann is a German language author of both Austrian and German nationality. His work Die Vermessung der Welt is the best selling novel in the German language since Patrick Süskind's Perfume was released in 1985...

. The novel re-imagines the lives of German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss

Carl Friedrich Gauss

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...

 and German geographer Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...

 – who was accompanied on his journeys by Aimé Bonpland

Aimé Bonpland

Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland was a French explorer and botanist.Bonpland's real name was Goujaud, and he was born in La Rochelle, a coastal city in France. After serving as a surgeon in the French army, and studying under J. N...

 – and their many groundbreaking ways of taking the world's measure, as well as their travels in South America and their meeting in 1828. The English translation is by Carol Brown Janeway (November 2006). The book was a bestseller; by 2009 it had sold more than 1.4 million copies in Germany alone.