"The Literary Companion to Science" is an exploration of the way in which science and scientists have been portrayed in fiction, memoirs, reportage and poetry. Much of the material gathered here is from recent times, though some is of earlier epochs. A special aim has been wherever possible to link people, phenomena and events of science, represented in fiction or poetry, to the reality, as reflected in memoirs, biography and jouralism. The anthology contains over 200 extracts, by writers such as Gustave Flaubert, Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, H.G.Wells and Aldous Huxley, linked by commentary. Nothing in the book requires the reader to know any science to speak of, nor does it seek to teach him anything. The purpose is solely to entertain, surprise, sometimes stir and once in a while to dismay the reader, and to reveal to him byways down which he may ramble at his leisure.