This is one of those plays where 'masterpiece' is echoed in the writing, rather than in the substance or meaning of the play. The reason why I think I can say this is the fact that, considering the messages and themes that the play is supposed to convey, I didn't catch a single one of them! Since this play tangles with mathematics, science, and with two different scenes in history happening simultaneously while both elucidating the same ideas, it was decidedly difficult for me to hang on to the plot line! But still, I finished it being absolutely enamoured to the play and being thrilled with the competence and witty humour of the writing, and the surprising memorability of the all of the characters given that some of them appear very little throughout the entire course of the play. Your brain even manages to flit between hanging on the words of Stoppard's own characters and wondering what Byron might be doing as he takes a constitution around the estate or sits in the gazebo, while you are focused on the scholars; debating about the mysteries and the meanings of life. I think it would have helped if I was a slightly more logical person and was slightly quicker on the uptake, and maybe then I would have seen this book to have the glory that is bestowed upon it for touching on so many subjects by most all other reviewers. But what sets this play apart from many others, and also from many other books, is it's ability to lose me, in plot and in message, but to keep me totally enthralled, and leave me dazzled, dazed, but inevitably wanting more