Stealing Tycho's Nose - Umberto Tosi
I meet the most interesting people in the course of researching books. Tycho Brahe is one of the most memorable. For example, I got to know great Danish astronomer Tycho Brae from researching Ophelia Risin g . I couldn't resist putting him into the novel and improvising a bit on his biography. Of course, perforce, "real" historical figures become fictionalized soon as they come on stage. The author gets to spin them into all kinds of hybrid narratives, as long as they seem believable. To wit, I wondered: How would Tycho have crossed paths with the Melancholy Dane? Tycho Brae shows up again in Ophelia Regina , the third and final volume-in-progress of what is to be an Ophelia Trilogy. Now seems a good time to reflect on Brahe's history and the particular twists I gave it in the first novel that I must now adhere to as backstory, like it or not. Ah, what tangled webs we weave. I won't apologize. Shakespeare did it all the time. The Bard even made an obl...