Sweden serves as the backdrop for Carl Linnaeus's struggles and eventual rise to prominence in the world of natural science. The story begins in Stenbrohult, a modest Swedish town where Linnaeus was born in 1707 to a reverend father who initially planned for his son to inherit the parish. The narrative then shifts to Uppsala, home to Uppsala University, which is depicted as an academic backwater in a dismal state during Linnaeus's student years—a place where he suffered through hunger, cold, and loneliness while receiving a...