In addition to being a celebration of the life and work of renowned biologist Carl Linnaeus, major themes of this touching story by Andrea Barrett are aging, memory and approaching death. The dying scientist has his coachman take him to his empty country estate where, amid a fog of fading memories, he reminisces about his life and the fate of some of the “apostles” he sent around the world to collect biological specimens. Later, he is joined by a concerned daughter and an unknown man he imagines to be his only surviving pupil. Other themes include family, pride and regret. More…