Books

Symmetry and the Monster

This is the story of a mathematical quest that began two hundred years ago in revolutionary France, led to the biggest collaboration ever between mathematicians across the world, and revealed the ‘Monster’ – not monstrous at all, but a structure of exquisite beauty and complexity.

This book tells for the first time the fascinating story of the biggest theorem ever to have been proved. Mark Ronan graphically describes not only the last few decades of the chase, but also some of the more interesting byways, including my personal favourite, the one I called “Monstrous Moonshine”.

John H. Conway, von Neumann Chair of Mathematics, Princeton University

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Lectures on Buildings

This textbook on the theory of mathematical buildings — beautiful objects exhibiting huge symmetry, and with important applications in the mathematics of ‘group theory’ — is a revised and updated edition published by the University of Chicago Press in October 2009.

 

 

 

This is the original hardback edition published by Academic Press in 1989.