| Over three hundred
and fifty years were to pass before a mild-mannered
Englishman finally cracked the mystery in 1995. Fermat
by then was far more than a theorem. Whole lives had
been devoted to the quest for a solution. There was
Sophie Germain, who had to take on the identity of a
man to conduct research in a field forbidden to females.
The dashing Evariste Galois scribbled down the results
of his research deep into the night before sauntering
out to die in a duel. The Japanese genius Yutaka Taniyama
killed himself in despair, while the German industrialist
Paul Wolfskehl claimed Fermat had saved him from suicide.
Andrew Wiles had dreamed of
proving Fermat ever since he first read about the theorem
as a boy of ten in his local library. Whilst the hopes
of others had been dashed, his dream was destined to
come true - but only after years of toil and frustration,
of exhilarating breakthrough and crashing disappointment.
Fermat's Last Theorem is the true story of how mathematics'
most challenging problem was made to yield its secrets
is a thrilling tale of endurance, ingenuity and inspiration.
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