The Search

by C.P. Snow

This story told in the first person starts with a child's interest in the night sky. A telescope starts a lifetime's interest in science. The narrator goes up to King's College, London to study. As a fellow at Cambridge he embarks on love affairs and searches for love at the same time as career success. Finally, contentment in love exhausts his passion for research.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, British Literature

322 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

Known British scientist Charles Percy Snow, baron Snow of Leicester, wrote especially his 11-volume series Strangers and Brothers (1940-1970).

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow

Reviews

[John Gribbin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the best novel ever written – it isn’t even C P Snow’s best novel (even Snow felt that The Search, written in 1934, was “a false start”); but I have a soft spot for the absorbing story of Arthur Miles, from sub-teenage years to his early thirties, which deals with his initial devotion to, and later abandonment of, science. The early part of the story echoed some of my feelings – although I have never suffered Miles’ disillusionment. In particular, my first encounter with quantum physics is aptly summed up by some lines from Snow: “I saw a medley of haphazard facts fall into line and order . . . ‘But it’s true,’ I said to myself. ‘It’s very beautiful. And it’s true.’” I still feel that way about science.

[Elizabeth Scott Tervo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've wanted to read this book since someone found it 'merrily burning on fire' in Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night and provided the key to the solution in that mystery!
I enjoyed it very much. Having read so many English authors of that generation, it was like meeting an old friend. I enjoyed transposing what he says about the pursuit of science to the pursuit of writing (which I assume was the author's thought). I'll look for more books by CP Snow.

[P · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book I don't think anyone else would like

[Di · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a pity that such a serious and important author should be such a dull writer. I've read all the 11 novels in the 'Strangers and Brothers' series. I particularly liked The Masters. But one does have to persist dutifully through a lot of rather plodding prose. It's worth the effort, because he deals with serious themes, and his psychological analysis of his characters is very good. But these are not books that one would re-read with delight.
I obtained a copy of The Search because it's an important element in the plot of Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. Ironically, when one of the characters in The Search writes a novel, the main character finds it terribly dull.
Perhaps the dullness of Snow's prose (apart from the occasional passage) is a lack of a sense of humour? To take a very different novelist who deals with serious themes, Lionel Shriver, one can see how potentially dull themes can be made to sparkle if the novelist is witty and has a highly developed sense of irony.
Incidentally, the illustration on the cover of this old paperback (I have a tatty copy) is one of the worst I've ever seen. The newer versions make the book look much more appealing.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book sort of as a favor to my elderly mother, who is a huge fan of C.P. Snow, and was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. This one of Snow's early works, and I feel like he wrote it as much because he had some ideas to explore about the culture of science as he did because he had a story to tell. That's okay; for the most part there's enough of a story here to keep the reader moving through the philosophical tangents. Readers who are interested in the history of 20th-century science may find the descriptions of the crystallography interesting; it's a body of work that laid the foundations for the discovery of the structure of DNA a generation later.

[John Bowis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of which I was unaware gives a foretaste of the Two Cultures debates. It predates the Strangers and Brothers series of novels and the late 50's and early 60's debates between CP Snow and FR Leavis.
In this case it pitches scientific research (mainly physics) and discovery against sustainable human relationships. It also touches on dishonesty or corners cut in both.

[Bill Chaisson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1934, this edition of The Search was rewritten in 1958 after the author received comments from friends and acquaintances that suggested it was an accurate portrayal of the life of a scientist and should be back in print. As someone who spent some time as an academic scientist and, like Arthur Miles, decided to do something else instead, I have to agree that C.P. Snow's description of the passion that drives people to choose to do scientific research for a living is accurate.

We meet Arthur Miles when he is still a child. He grows up in a petit bourgeois household in a provincial city, and he is self-conscious about these facts for the duration of your time with him. He makes two good friends at college, Hunt and Sheriff. They are all scientists, but Miles is the most focused and rapidly moves forward with his career. Hunt fails to get a first-class degree and becomes a teacher. Sheriff gets a first-class degree but has no focus to his research and is also of questionable character. He, for starters, steals Miles's girlfriend and marries her.

Snow is very good about the intensity of the research life. It demands a tremendous number of work hours per week and even when you are not working, you are often thinking about your work. Miles is a crystallographer; he makes x-ray diffraction photographs of samples to determine the three-dimensional configuration of the various atoms that make up a compound. Snow is cagey about describing the work; he never mentions anything technical at all but instead describes how Miles thinks about it.

Beyond the work itself though, there are the ethics of science. What is the right way to conduct yourself and your research? The search of the title is the search for truth. Miles is looking for the actual structure of a crystal compound. The scientific method must be followed. You must honestly and carefully evaluate your results and come to conclusions that are based on the data, not on what you hope to find.

The book is written in the first person; you are inside Arthur Miles' head the whole time, and he is ruthlessly honest at all times. You are treated to some candid analyses of the character of people around him that are often far from flattering. Apparently, this is not always completely hidden from the people around him. He knows that his colleagues put up with his sharpness and odd sense of humor because he is good at what he does. But that means that he must always be good at what he does.

Snow's description of the chain of events that leads to Miles' departure from science to become a writer is gripping, probably because it is somewhat autobiographical. The events are dramatic because they are taking place among scientists. If they occurred in another milieu, the meaning would be quite different. Academic science is different from the academic humanities because there is more money involved, and there is more money involved because the scientists are providing the basis for technological advance. And technological advance is remunerative, for someone.

Therefore, academic scientists must interact with and to some extent ape the culture of both business and government. To put it mildly, they tend to not be very good at it. Miles' eventual realization is that, unlike his colleagues, he is good at it and moreover he is passionate about understanding the interrelationships among the various milieux.

I left science only 20 years ago, but nothing about this book seemed dated to me. Academic culture is curiously conservative in many ways. There are no female scientists, overtly gay scientists, or scientists of color in this book. So, in that sense it is dated. However, identity politics aside, very little has changed since C.P. Snow wrote the original version of this book in the early 1920s. If you are thinking of leaving academia and, these days who isn't it, given the state of it, then this book might actually be helpful.

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthy meditation on the necessary mix of talent, ambition, organizational skills and integrity to succeed in a close-knit and high-profile profession. Chronicles the excitement and tedium of science in the first half of the 20th century, told from the point of view of Arthur, a top scientist of the second-tier, by his own analysis. He squanders his first love, with stereotype-resisting Audrey, for the dream of an institute of his own. Only to blow it when he's tripped up by an error in a bit too hasty publication. Faced with starting over in a lesser position than he aspired to, he realizes he isn't in love with science anymore and plans accordingly. He discovers he was more intrigued by the politics and personalities. Suggestion is that he will become a writer, which is facilitated by marriage to the rich and supportive Ruth. But his real test comes when the friend he mentors to success in science, Charles Sheriff, commits fraud. Does he blow the whistle, or let his charming but duplicitous friend (now married to Audrey which links their fates) succeed through cheating? Arthur's affection for the genius Constantine, despite jealous impulses, is an example of his valuing of honest inquiry into the nature of things. One might say he remains true to philosophy and the need to identify truth, even though he ultimately betrays his early ideas of science.

[Maritza · Rating 3 out of 5]

~3-3.5
The book revolves around Arthur Miles. He becomes disillusioned with his life as a scientist, we hear of his love affairs, and friendships...
There's a special sentimentality that comes through that I really enjoyed. If disillusionment could be put into words, C.P. Snow is more than capable of doing it. I liked the moments in which Miles describes all the minutiae concerning his career choices and relationships. It feels so personal that at times you become one with Arthur- lost. Very relatable character. Considering the material I'm surprised it didn't feel dense as a read.
+It was disjunct yet interesting.
+The ending I had to re-read, I like how it ties in to the beginning of the story.

[Cherif Jazra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book is about the life of a scientist, that was not really what made it so appealing to me. It was rather the constant reflective tone, the memoir aspect of the book, the smooth flow of thoughts that the main character expresses on the paper as he is writing. The book is about the nature of experiences, of being the child of his father, of his circle of best friends and their flaws, of his success and failures at love, and his experience with other scientists. It's the focus on the humanity of the character, which even though comes from a male perspective, it's never bullying or demeaning. It is an inner voice that speaks gently throughout, without the violence of hatred or even despair. This is the first C.P. Snow book I read, and I am quite pleasantly surprised by it.