About this title: In this compelling adventure, Stephenson brings to life a cast of unforgettable characters in the late 1600s on the high seas. It is a time of breathtaking genius and discovery for men and women whose exploits define an age known as Baroque.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Date Published: 04/2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 832 p. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow & Co, New York
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Good in Good jacket. Minor corner bumping. Light soiling to the edges. Some edgewear and minor creasing to the dust jacket. Otherwise a clean, sturdy copy. read more
Edition: 1st
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow and Company, Inc., N. Y.
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Cover Art. Very Good in Very Good jacket. Hard Back. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. X-Library with normal flaws.....The hard cover and the jacket has very light shelf wear....Heavy book....We are very careful when we list our books, but sometimes something minor may get by.. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Published: 2004-04-01
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. VG/VG. Very Good Hardcover book with Very Good Dust Jacket. Binding tight and straight. Pages clean and unmarked. read more
Edition: 1st
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morror, N. Y.
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Cover Art. Very Good in Very Good jacket. Hard Back. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. The hard cover and the jacket has very light shelf wear.....Heavy book........We are very careful when we list our books, but sometimes something minor may get by. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow, New York
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Very Good in Very Good- jacket. 0060523867 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall The dust jacket has light edge wear and is lightly rubbed and the dust jacket is in a Mylar type protector. This is an oversized book (it will not fit in a flat rate priority envelope), if you are ordering from outside the United States or would like this shipped priority from within the USA please contact us first for actual shipping costs. read more
Description: Has a remainder line on the bott. Hardback: Morrow: 1st 2004: Has a remainder line on the bottom of the book and a brown dot on the top. The dust jacket has some shelf wear and a 1/4 inch tear at the top rear spine fold. : Dust Jacket: Cover Artist: Historic Urban Plans, Inc. / Aquan, Richard L. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Very Good+ in Very Good+ dust jacket. 0060523867. Book and DJ have very light edgewear; DJ has light wrinkle to top spine; DJ in protective Brodart cover; 832 pages. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow, New York
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: NF/NF. 8VO. 815 pp. The second volume of Stephenson's massive and altogether wonderful Baroque Cycle. Lightest of wear to book and unpriceclipped jacket. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Fine copy in a Near Fine DJ with slight shelfwear to edges. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 832 p. Baroque Cycle, 2. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Edition First Printing Stated
Binding: Hard Back
Publisher: William Morrow & Co, Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Very Good in Good jacket. 6 1/2" X 9 1/2" 815 Pages. Dust jacket priice $27.95 is unclipped with a one inch tear at back top spine area and minor edge wear. Colorful map endpapers. Tight, bright book that has been read a few times and has very slight spine cock. The Confusion is the second volume of this stunning historical fiction trilogy of ideas encompassing science, adventure, intrigue and politics. In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves, including one Jack Shaftoe lately and ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Very Good. **FAST SHIPPING FROM UK** We aim to post all books within 1-2 working days. All orders are fully guaranteed and sent from our warehouse in the United Kingdom Email support for all customers. read more
Edition: First Ed
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Morrow
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. First ed. Very good/Very good condition, moderate over all wear to book and dustjacket, remainder mark to bottom page edges. read more
Edition: Stated First Edition; First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060523862ISBN:0060523867
Description: Very Good+ in Very Good+ dust jacket; Bought new, read once. Rfep is wrinkled and torn up. Shipping may be extra due to 4 lb weight. The Baroque Cycle; Vol. 2; 8vo. read more
In a discussion of being political/diplomatic: "It is precisely because it is true, that you must not come out and state it." "Very well then, monsieur, I vow not to say anything true for the remainder of this conversation" (p. 69).
Simple little joke, but it cracked me up. The coversation goes on for some time afterwords, and I haven't yet decided if the second character broke the vow...
*****
Ok, so apparently I didn't end up blogging this one live as I read it. Apologies. I did mark a bunch of stuff that I wanted to share with you all though, that I thoroughly enjoyed:
***
Here's a slightly predictable but still enjoyable little exchange:
"You shall amass some sort of capital, and lend out money... I can only perceive two drawbacks to what is otherwise an excellent plan, my lord..." "Don't say it. We have no capital... and no money." "Just so, my lord." (p.486)
***
The Elector Johann Georg IV belonged to a sort of fraternity whose members were to be found in every country in the world, and among every class of society: Men Who Had Been Hit on the Head as Boys. As MWHBHHB went, Johan Georg was a beauty (p. 527).
Tell me that isn't genius.
***
______'s chief source of discomfort, the, was a feeling well known to soldiers of low rank, to doctors' patients, and to people getting their hair cut; namely, that he was utterly in the power of an incompetent (p. 801-2).
This last one comes as the character in question (name blanked to prevent spoilerization) finds himself a prisoner, and theoretical torture victim of a character who is not very good at the whole torture thing.
***
I am still absolutely loving the Baroque Cycle. I want to note again, in case you didn't see it in my Quicksilver review, that this is not a "series" of books. It's one long book broken into three. Neither of the first two end in anything remotely resembling a satisfying resolution, and this one essentially drops you right back in there. Many sequels give you lots of sort of recapping, but this one really doesn't do much of that, and couldn't stand alone. Start with Quicksilver.
This book continues following the three main characters of Daniel (who admittedly takes a backseat), Eliza, and Jack. These latter two, certainly the focal points of The Confusion, are difficult to follow, as their adventurers take them all over the place. Again, as in Quicksilver, this book contains much delightful encountering of historically significant people and events. A short list would include The Spanish Inquisition, King Louis XIV, The Shogun in Japan, Barbary Corsairs, Jacobite Rebellions, Leibniz and Newton, and the founding of the Bank of England.
Of course, this isn't merely a history book, and includes much in the ways of fanciful and entertaining fiction. More so than Quicksilver, The Confusion has a rather epic adventure vibe to it. It also features some of the most satisfying death scenes I've encountered in a long time. Actually, I could have left the word "death" out of the preceding sentence, and it would have been just as applicable to a host of other scenes as well. Stephenson does an excellent job of setting up smaller narratives within the bigger picture, and the mini climaxes and denouements that accompany these are beyond satisfying.
I can't wait to see how this wraps up in System of the World."
"This book includes the middle portion of the Baroque Cycle.
On the surface this "trilogy" (Stephenson refuses the term) is an enormous work. Each "book" is near 900 pages apiece. Stephenson claims that this is really 8 books collected into three volumes. This is still somewhere near 2600 pages.
But this work really reads like a very large number of very small episodes. Much like today's cable-TV series, each episode is easily digested; but compels the reader to go on to the next cliff-hanger. So the reader need not be so intimidated by the number of pages.
I've found this work hard to put down; and am eager to read The System of the World. This is because the Baroque Cycle is an attractive combination of high scholarship, low slapstick, and action adventure. Any one of these elements would be too much to take alone; but in combination, they are hard to match."
"The Confusion is the second part of the Baroque trilogy, Neal Stephenson's over 2600 page journey through the the 17 and 18th centuries as the world transformed its scientific, financial, religious, artistic and philosophical viewpoints and institutions.
The first book was really dragged down by so much explanation and detail that it just was a toil to get through. This second book is less so. I also had become used to Stephenson's sometimes unwieldy style, so was able to make better headway through this book, and felt less bogged down most of the time.
The main characters are all still there. Jack Shaftoe, who gains and loses fortunes right and left in this volume. Eliza, whose political and financial machinations keep her in constant peril, and Daniel Waterhouse, of the Royal Society of Philosophers, who seems to be the key to holding all factions of the scientific and philosophic community together.
I do like that Stephenson shows how much the world changed during this time period, and how vast the changes were in so many aspects. But his style still can be grating, and he still can go into so much extraneous detail that reading becomes a chore.
This is a big trilogy, and I have one more left, at almost 900 pages. But I think a bit of a break from Stephenson is needed, so I will read a couple of smaller books before I go back and finish the Baroque Trilogy."
"A huge opus filled with nearly too much detail, about.... pirates/vagabonds, kings and queens, sexual liaisons, money found and lost, alchemy, the development of the modern money supply in several countries in Europe, with sidetrips to Japan, India, and Egypt. Despite the diverse topics this is mainly a huge pleasure to read. Ostensibly about a man and woman in the Baroque period/early Enlightenment with large cast of characters including Newton, Leibnitz, Louis XIV, William of Orange, and a host of others. If this sounds interesting pick up the first volume and read the first chapter to see if you want to tackle the whole trilogy."
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