The Genius Myth
The Dangerous Allure of Rebels, Monsters and Rule-Breakers
Published on 19. June 2025
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-1-78733-324-6 (ISBN)
Description
**Longlisted for the 2025 Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award**
*A Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman and GQ Book for 2025 *
*From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Difficult Women*
'Brilliant, timely and compulsively readable. Helen Lewis shows how the idea of genius has warped our understanding of human creativity - and why people of vast accomplishment in one domain can prove so destructively clueless in others.' OLIVER BURKEMAN
The tortured poet. The rebellious scientist. The monstrous artist. The tech disruptor.
You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate.
Taking us from the Renaissance Florence of Leonardo da Vinci to the Floridian rocket launches of Elon Musk's SpaceX, Helen Lewis unravels a word that we all use - without really questioning what it means.
Along the way, she uncovers the secret of the Beatles' success, asks how biographers should solve the Austen Problem, and reveals why Stephen Hawking thought IQ tests were for losers (before taking one herself). And she asks if the modern idea of genius - a class of special people - is distorting our view of the world.
'Lucid, funny and fascinating' ADAM BUXTON
'An indispensable companion to our times' CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ
*A Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman and GQ Book for 2025 *
*From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Difficult Women*
'Brilliant, timely and compulsively readable. Helen Lewis shows how the idea of genius has warped our understanding of human creativity - and why people of vast accomplishment in one domain can prove so destructively clueless in others.' OLIVER BURKEMAN
The tortured poet. The rebellious scientist. The monstrous artist. The tech disruptor.
You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate.
Taking us from the Renaissance Florence of Leonardo da Vinci to the Floridian rocket launches of Elon Musk's SpaceX, Helen Lewis unravels a word that we all use - without really questioning what it means.
Along the way, she uncovers the secret of the Beatles' success, asks how biographers should solve the Austen Problem, and reveals why Stephen Hawking thought IQ tests were for losers (before taking one herself). And she asks if the modern idea of genius - a class of special people - is distorting our view of the world.
'Lucid, funny and fascinating' ADAM BUXTON
'An indispensable companion to our times' CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ
Reviews / Votes
A brilliant, timely and compulsively readable book. With her characteristic combination of deep reporting and lightness of touch, Helen Lewis shows how the idea of genius has warped our understanding of human creativity - and why people of vast accomplishment in one domain can prove so destructively clueless in others. -- OLIVER BURKEMAN This is the book we need right now. Smart, funny and full of surprises, The Genius Myth takes aim at our cultish worship of Great Men. An indispensable companion to our times. -- CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ Typically lucid, funny and fascinating. Not so much a debunking of "genius" as a highly entertaining exploration of why we want it to exist. -- Adam Buxton Helen Lewis argues that "genius" lies in the eye of the beholder. Well, my own eyes saw genius when they read this book. -- Lucy Worsley Lewis issues an effective call for a more carefully tempered understanding of genius in our precarious times, one that celebrates creativity, innovation, and achievement rather than idolizing a maker's rarity and eccentricity. By degrees unsettling, amusing, and prescient; a much-needed audit of a consuming idea. * Kirkus Reviews * [A] witty book... Lewis is brilliantly perceptive * Observer * [A] provocative, witty book... [Lewis shows that] Genius is no longer synonymous with impunity. The myth is changing * Times Literary Supplement * Original and painfully timely * Economist * Lewis is such a well-read guide to intelligence... she is insightful on the loneliness of the very intelligent * Mail on Sunday * [A] witty and timely critique of a perennially problematic concept * Financial Times * [An] entertaining book * Literary Review * Lewis is one of the best political journalists around... The Genius Myth...is equally lively and illuminating [as Difficult Women] * Critic * Breezy and entertaining * Daily Telegraph * It is when Lewis slows down and burrows into a subject that things get interesting. A case in point is her excellent investigation into how the "IQ Wars" took hold of scientists in the late 19th century, with devastating results. * Sunday Times * Original * Economist, *Books of the Year* * [A] hugely entertaining book * The York Press *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
558 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78733-324-6 (9781787333246)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
approx. 06/2026
Vintage
€16.50
Not yet published
E-Book
06/2025
Vintage Digital
€14.99
Available for download
Book
06/2025
JONATHAN CAPE
€21.50
Available immediately
Person
Helen Lewis is a staff writer at The Atlantic, based in London, who writes about politics and culture. Her first book, Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights, was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Guardian, Telegraph and Financial Times book of the year. She is the writer and presenter of the BBC podcast series The New Gurus and Helen Lewis Has Left the Chat, and co-host of Radio 4's Kafka vs Orwell and Strong Message Here. She won the 2024 Kukula Award for excellence in non-fiction book reviewing.