[2] Despite the title, the book provides biographical information on many iconic mathematicians including Euler, Gauss, and Lagrange.

In chapter 2, Bernhard Riemann is introduced and a brief historical account of Eastern Europe in the 18th Century is discussed.

In chapter 4, Derbyshire gives a short biographical history of Carl Friedrich Gauss and Leonard Euler, setting up their involvement in the Prime Number Theorem.

According to reviewer S. W. Graham, the book is written at a level that is suitable for advanced undergraduate students of mathematics.

[4] Reviewer Don Redmond writes that, while the even-numbered chapters explain the history well, the odd-numbered chapters present the mathematics too informally to be useful, failing to provide insight to readers who do not already understand the mathematics, and failing even to explain the importance of the Riemann hypothesis.