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A Case of Curiosities
In France, on the eve of the Revolution, a young man named Claude Page sets out to become the most ingenious and daring inventor of his time. In the course of a career filled with violence and passion, Claude learns the arts of enameling and watchmaking from an irascible, defrocked abbé, apprentices himself to a pornographic bookseller, and applies his erotic erudition to the seduction of the wife of an impotent wigmaker. But it is Claude's greatest device-a talking mechanical head-that both crowns his career and leads to an execution as tragic as that of Marie Antoinette, and far more bizarre.
Hailed by critics for the shimmering brilliance of its inventions and its uncanny fidelity to the textures of the past, A Case of Curiosities places Allen Kurzweil securely in the ranks of the finest literary artists of our time.
Hailed by critics for the shimmering brilliance of its inventions and its uncanny fidelity to the textures of the past, A Case of Curiosities places Allen Kurzweil securely in the ranks of the finest literary artists of our time.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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699 people want to read
About the author
Allen Kurzweil
13 books36 followersAllen Kurzweil is an American novelist, journalist, editor, and lecturer. He is the author of four works of fiction, most notably A Case of Curiosities, as well as a memoir Whipping Boy. He is also the co-inventor, with his son Max, of Potato Chip Science, an eco-friendly experiment kit for grade schoolers. He is a cousin of Ray Kurzweil and brother of Vivien Schmidt.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
July 26, 2025
An Apprentice To The Dark Side of Human Nature
Allen Kurzweil's 1992 historical novel "A Case of Curiosities" is set in the late 18th Century and tells the story of one Claude Page, born in 1780 to poverty in rural France. Page has both artistic and mechanical gifts, and the story describes how he ultimately if temporarily came to put his gifts to use. In the words of a defrocked Abby, Page's mentor, the hero learns to find a metaphor for his life.
The book is told by a narrator who purchases a dusty curio case with relics of Page's life at an auction in Paris in 1983. He becomes intrigued upon finding a biography of this elusive figure and spends six years in research on Page's life and career. In the words of the leading reader review of this book on Amazon, dated July 12, 2002. Page becomes "an apprentice to the dark side of human nature".
The story is recounted in a heavily mannered, idiosyncratic tone which carries the reader back to 18th Century France. While it is generally effective in carrying the reader into the time, the ornate, overwritten, and erudite writing often becomes wearisome. So too, the many characters, places, and historical references give a sense of place and historical distance while also clogging and slowing down the narrative. The author is given to reading, learning, and wordplay with his name "Kurzweil" making a cameo appearance late in the story.
The book begins when Page, age 10, loses a finger in an amputation to a malevolent surgeon. The heretical Abby takes an interest in the lad who shows marked talent for both enamel painting and science. The Abby, estranged from religion, offers the boy encouragement while steering his talents to painting pornographic scenes, seemingly in demand during all times and places. Page's life and fortunes change and as a young adolescent he runs off to Paris where he lives in squalor The book shows many aspects of the French underclass of the time.. Page secures an unhappy apprenticeship to a bookseller where he furthers his talents in pornography and at the age of 16 has an affair with an unhappily married woman. Ultimately Page's prodigious mechanical gifts, centering on what he learned from watchmaking, come through, as Page designs and creates a curious "talking head".
The story is lively and often humorous as it immerses the reader into the underbelly of pre-Revolutionary France, with the seeming twins of Enlightenment and pornography. The book shows some of the virtues and the costs of Enlightenment in terms of the abandonment of religious belief, exemplified most clearly in the Abby. The suggestion may be that progress and freedom of thought are counterbalanced by revolution, violence and a sense of purposelessness.
I had mixed feelings about the book. I did get a sense of place and time and enjoyed the author's immersion in the period, including his references to many of the pornographic books of the day. The book also is insightful on the rise of the scientific outlook and on its possible consequences. The book also became wearing and overdone as it went on. It became a chore to read and to finish. Some books may be better in reflection than in the actual process of reading. I became impatient with "A Case of Curiosities" but concluded that the book was worth the effort.
Robin Friedman
Allen Kurzweil's 1992 historical novel "A Case of Curiosities" is set in the late 18th Century and tells the story of one Claude Page, born in 1780 to poverty in rural France. Page has both artistic and mechanical gifts, and the story describes how he ultimately if temporarily came to put his gifts to use. In the words of a defrocked Abby, Page's mentor, the hero learns to find a metaphor for his life.
The book is told by a narrator who purchases a dusty curio case with relics of Page's life at an auction in Paris in 1983. He becomes intrigued upon finding a biography of this elusive figure and spends six years in research on Page's life and career. In the words of the leading reader review of this book on Amazon, dated July 12, 2002. Page becomes "an apprentice to the dark side of human nature".
The story is recounted in a heavily mannered, idiosyncratic tone which carries the reader back to 18th Century France. While it is generally effective in carrying the reader into the time, the ornate, overwritten, and erudite writing often becomes wearisome. So too, the many characters, places, and historical references give a sense of place and historical distance while also clogging and slowing down the narrative. The author is given to reading, learning, and wordplay with his name "Kurzweil" making a cameo appearance late in the story.
The book begins when Page, age 10, loses a finger in an amputation to a malevolent surgeon. The heretical Abby takes an interest in the lad who shows marked talent for both enamel painting and science. The Abby, estranged from religion, offers the boy encouragement while steering his talents to painting pornographic scenes, seemingly in demand during all times and places. Page's life and fortunes change and as a young adolescent he runs off to Paris where he lives in squalor The book shows many aspects of the French underclass of the time.. Page secures an unhappy apprenticeship to a bookseller where he furthers his talents in pornography and at the age of 16 has an affair with an unhappily married woman. Ultimately Page's prodigious mechanical gifts, centering on what he learned from watchmaking, come through, as Page designs and creates a curious "talking head".
The story is lively and often humorous as it immerses the reader into the underbelly of pre-Revolutionary France, with the seeming twins of Enlightenment and pornography. The book shows some of the virtues and the costs of Enlightenment in terms of the abandonment of religious belief, exemplified most clearly in the Abby. The suggestion may be that progress and freedom of thought are counterbalanced by revolution, violence and a sense of purposelessness.
I had mixed feelings about the book. I did get a sense of place and time and enjoyed the author's immersion in the period, including his references to many of the pornographic books of the day. The book also is insightful on the rise of the scientific outlook and on its possible consequences. The book also became wearing and overdone as it went on. It became a chore to read and to finish. Some books may be better in reflection than in the actual process of reading. I became impatient with "A Case of Curiosities" but concluded that the book was worth the effort.
Robin Friedman
November 22, 2014
I read this book years ago and loved it. Just read it again - still love it. It is such an idiosyncratic piece, so smart and funny and well written, and so filled with a love of ideas, words, objects and people. The level of research required to paint this detailed a picture of pre-Revolutionary France is astonishing.
The cast of characters is wonderful - Claude, the young country boy whose dream is to make a mechanical talking head, his first patron, the defrocked Jesuit Abbe whose love of all knowledge inspired Claude and who taught him the arts of enameling watch cases with erotic images, then automating the images with clockworks. Those he meets after he leaves the Abbe - the Gourmand coachman, the taxidermist neighbor, the lovely young wet-nurse who becomes his wife, and the only villain - Livre, the controlling hypochondriac bookseller who takes Claude as his apprentice and does his best to ruin his life.
The structure of the book echoes the structure of the Case - a set of compartments, each illuminating a period in Claude's life. The detail and description of such subjects as Claude's attempt to annotate all of the sounds he hears, his mechanical experiments and the 18th century fascination with machines in general and automata especially are truly wonderful.
I will probably read it again.
The cast of characters is wonderful - Claude, the young country boy whose dream is to make a mechanical talking head, his first patron, the defrocked Jesuit Abbe whose love of all knowledge inspired Claude and who taught him the arts of enameling watch cases with erotic images, then automating the images with clockworks. Those he meets after he leaves the Abbe - the Gourmand coachman, the taxidermist neighbor, the lovely young wet-nurse who becomes his wife, and the only villain - Livre, the controlling hypochondriac bookseller who takes Claude as his apprentice and does his best to ruin his life.
The structure of the book echoes the structure of the Case - a set of compartments, each illuminating a period in Claude's life. The detail and description of such subjects as Claude's attempt to annotate all of the sounds he hears, his mechanical experiments and the 18th century fascination with machines in general and automata especially are truly wonderful.
I will probably read it again.
July 23, 2018
3.5 stars
On the eve of the Revolution a young peasant boy in France with a keen mind and talent for drafting undergoes a trauma that proves to be both a bane and a blessing, for while it leads to the loss of a finger and a brush with death, it also puts him under the care of the local magistrate, a man of learning and compassion who takes the boy under his wing and nurtures the talents he perceives lie under the surface. And so Claude Page begins his apprenticeship and starts out on a path of strange and varied learning that runs the gamut from pornography and painting to mechanical engineering and acoustics and much in-between. Claude's educational syllabus is, suffice it to say, one that is truly unique.
Even those whose benevolence would appear to be altruistic have their secrets however, and mischance and misunderstanding lead Claude to leave his secluded academy in search of his fortune in Paris, where he finds that intelligence and talent are not nearly enough to earn him a place in the world. The venality of those who would make use of his abilities for their own ends and the hindrances put in place by the hidebound powers-that-be prove to be nearly insurmountable barriers. Only the support of a few fast friends and the dreams of making his mark in the world by building something truly revolutionary, something that can bring together the varied aspects of his intellectual hunger, allows him to move beyond his trials and attempt to find a way beyond them.
Kurzweil writes an intriguing tale that reminded me of Iain Pears or Umberto Eco in its obvious interest in erudition and the intellectual aspects of the history it relates. Populated with polymaths and specialists of various arcane subjects, the book also revels in the nearly Dickensian oddities of the people whose lives it purports to tell. Whether we watch the iconoclastic and unstable genius of the Count of Tournay, the defrocked Abbe who takes Claude under his wing and attempts to regain some level of pecuniary solvency through the medium of pornography (via the talents of his new protege), or the horrid retchings and philosophical musings of 'the phlegmagogue' the bookseller aptly named Livre to whom Claude becomes indentured, we are granted a front seat to some of the more outre characters of pre-Revolutionary Paris. In another echo of both Pears and Eco, Kurzweil introduces his story through the medium of an artifact from the past (the titular cabinet of curiosities) that entices the author (or at least the purported narrator) to investigate the mystery behind it and thus uncover the story that unfolds. It’s a clever, if oft-used, tactic in the genre of historical fiction that I think has the virtue of bringing the reader closer to the characters of the tale. If you’re a fan of historical fiction or intellectual history this is a book you’re likely to enjoy.
On the eve of the Revolution a young peasant boy in France with a keen mind and talent for drafting undergoes a trauma that proves to be both a bane and a blessing, for while it leads to the loss of a finger and a brush with death, it also puts him under the care of the local magistrate, a man of learning and compassion who takes the boy under his wing and nurtures the talents he perceives lie under the surface. And so Claude Page begins his apprenticeship and starts out on a path of strange and varied learning that runs the gamut from pornography and painting to mechanical engineering and acoustics and much in-between. Claude's educational syllabus is, suffice it to say, one that is truly unique.
Even those whose benevolence would appear to be altruistic have their secrets however, and mischance and misunderstanding lead Claude to leave his secluded academy in search of his fortune in Paris, where he finds that intelligence and talent are not nearly enough to earn him a place in the world. The venality of those who would make use of his abilities for their own ends and the hindrances put in place by the hidebound powers-that-be prove to be nearly insurmountable barriers. Only the support of a few fast friends and the dreams of making his mark in the world by building something truly revolutionary, something that can bring together the varied aspects of his intellectual hunger, allows him to move beyond his trials and attempt to find a way beyond them.
Kurzweil writes an intriguing tale that reminded me of Iain Pears or Umberto Eco in its obvious interest in erudition and the intellectual aspects of the history it relates. Populated with polymaths and specialists of various arcane subjects, the book also revels in the nearly Dickensian oddities of the people whose lives it purports to tell. Whether we watch the iconoclastic and unstable genius of the Count of Tournay, the defrocked Abbe who takes Claude under his wing and attempts to regain some level of pecuniary solvency through the medium of pornography (via the talents of his new protege), or the horrid retchings and philosophical musings of 'the phlegmagogue' the bookseller aptly named Livre to whom Claude becomes indentured, we are granted a front seat to some of the more outre characters of pre-Revolutionary Paris. In another echo of both Pears and Eco, Kurzweil introduces his story through the medium of an artifact from the past (the titular cabinet of curiosities) that entices the author (or at least the purported narrator) to investigate the mystery behind it and thus uncover the story that unfolds. It’s a clever, if oft-used, tactic in the genre of historical fiction that I think has the virtue of bringing the reader closer to the characters of the tale. If you’re a fan of historical fiction or intellectual history this is a book you’re likely to enjoy.
August 15, 2012
A cabinet filled with curious objects recounts the life of one Claude Page, an artist and inventor born poor in rural France and destined for a strange, evolving adolescence. A Case of Curiosities has an expected humor to its narration, a slyness and whimsical satire (and a dogged, adolescent obsession with sex) which threatens to grow excessive over 350 pages ("He was sorry that her presence in his life was so limited, like some minor character in a historical narrative who pops up and leaves without displaying the depth that is clearly there" (316)-- mean, really.) but just manages to stay on the safe side, instead making the book a swift and light read. And a good thing, too, as it has a lingering pace and little sense of forward motion, with the protagonist seeming only to stumble into the next chapter of his life. It's a strange historical novel: too detailed and grungy to be escapism, too light in tone to carry much weight. I have a narrow sense of humor, and so the same thing that makes this book fall flat for me may be more successful for another reader; as I see it, it has its moments and never fails to be readable, but A Case of Curiosities fails to coalesce into a successful novel, and I don't recommend it.
February 18, 2018
Avvincente ma non affascinante.
December 28, 2020
This is an odd an incredibly engaging story about building robots in pre-revolutionary France. And no, it's not 18th century steampunk or alternate history. It's really creative, solidly grounded, historical fiction. Kind of like "A Tale of Two Cities" written for readers of Popular Mechanics. The novel's protagonist is driven to create automatons - mechanical animals and people popular among France's clueless and doomed elites - and obsessed with created a lifelike, talking human head. His quest takes him on an adventure across Europe, where he encounters an incredible cast of characters, including Enlightenment-era pornographers, a disturbingly innovative taxidermist and a pioneering foodie who drives a carriage just so he can sample the continent's dishes. The climax of the story features my favorite guillotine scene since Sydney Carton redeemed himself by taking the blade meant for Charles Darnay.
August 13, 2012
Claude Page is growing up in the French Pyrenees in Pre-revolutionary France. His father was a watchmaker but had died while in Turkey. His mother is a herbalist. Claude is apprenticed to a local disenfranchised cleric.
He first learns to enamel, making some bawdy pieces the abbe can sell to cover his debts. Then Claude learns about watchmaking. Claude is a whiz at anything mechanical.
Eventually Claude leaves the abbe to travel to Paris. He loves mechanical things and wishes to make a talking head.
I found this book intriguing regarding the inventions and the period but thought it lacked any great plot. It was a very slow start and maybe this is what kept me from fully liking the book
He first learns to enamel, making some bawdy pieces the abbe can sell to cover his debts. Then Claude learns about watchmaking. Claude is a whiz at anything mechanical.
Eventually Claude leaves the abbe to travel to Paris. He loves mechanical things and wishes to make a talking head.
I found this book intriguing regarding the inventions and the period but thought it lacked any great plot. It was a very slow start and maybe this is what kept me from fully liking the book
January 7, 2014
This is an exceptional read. Kurwell really drew me in. The story was so full of detail, and so original! I loved how the boy got so involved with puppets, later making mechanical ones, regardless of the dying practice of puppetry. The story was as intricately as the puppets, detailed descriptions of the shop's window displays. This is a fantastic read!!!
February 27, 2010
so great! Kurzweil is a great storyteller, mixing fact and humor. Great vocabulary. This book has me laughing out loud.
May 15, 2011
Interesting insight into French life just before the French Revolution. it is beautifully composed and has a very likable main character with Claude Page and his friends.
February 25, 2012
A sheer joy. I just wish I had've started alias of all the uncommon words I came across - I'd be unbeatable in Scrabble!
May 9, 2021
An in depth review to follow but this is one of the most bizarre, unique and cleverly written books I have ever read...
abandoned
July 15, 2018This was very well written, but I had a hard time getting into it and connecting with the characters. I was making my way through this very slowly and never looking forward to reading whenever I picked it up, so decided to abandon it. Made it about 1/3 through.
February 8, 2015
This is the kind of novel I always enjoy - historic fiction with an overt structure that makes overt the traits of historic fiction. I love the conceit of the work with each section of the case assigned an object, especially as you don't always understand the relationship of the section to the object until the end. The structure never feels forced and I often forgot it until I'd get to the end of a section. Likewise, I forgot the sort of author's wink at the beginning and end as I was reading, until it came back in as a wink. The characters are appealing and the historic facts are the kind that make you want to research how "true" they are. This is the kind of pleasure reading that almost always makes me want to research to put everything in context. Definitely an author to put on my "to read" list!
July 27, 2011
Claude Page, a bright and talented boy from a remote village in the French Pyranees, receives local mentorship which changes the course of his life and brings him to Paris during the French Revolution. While I never quite understood his obsession with creating a mechanical talking head, I like to believe I received from this book accurate information as to the state of science and engineering from that period. This novel came to my list via Nancy Pearl's Book Lust reading list "Mechanical Men, Robots, Automatons, and Deep Blue", and was also mentioned by the author's cousin Ray Kurzweil in his book The Singularity Is Near.
June 17, 2013
An interesting story of a fictional French peasant boy, the son of a watchmaker, who learns the mechanical trades through his own native intelligence and with the aid of an eccentric band of characters. While interesting, and full of historical details and descriptions of Paris, the story itself seemed rather obtuse. The young man, Claude, endures some tedious sidetracks in pursuing his dream, but somehow this reader had difficulty drumming up much empathy for his plight. And in the end, the crowning achievement of his life seemed rather odd and not very important at all. Certainly not worth the kerfuffle it provoked.
June 14, 2012
An erudite disappointment..all sauce and no meat.Kurzweil's love of playful language, while clever, doesn't disguise the fact that there is basically no plot,no believable characters and no more reason to read this novel than to look at a few shiny geegaws.I love this period in French history and enjoy whimsical,bizarre characters,arcane references, and detailed descriptions of people and place that make the time come alive, but not when there is well, no point to it all. For satire of the French, read "Candide," not a flimsy simulacrum(one is tempted to say an automat) of the original.
April 20, 2018
Enigmatic
A wordsmithing triumph. Decent story with hyperbolic obsfercation. Should you complete a chapter without the need of a dictionary or a thesaurus, then Funk and Wagnals is worth of your resume.
A wordsmithing triumph. Decent story with hyperbolic obsfercation. Should you complete a chapter without the need of a dictionary or a thesaurus, then Funk and Wagnals is worth of your resume.
June 17, 2009
If you are a polymath you will love this.
February 16, 2025
My husband gave me this book in 2001 because I was working for a Patent Office contract. After a cursory look, I realized I was not in a receptive frame of mind for reading this kind of book and put it away to read for another time. Towards the end of the winter holidays this past year, I gave the book a second look and was immediately drawn in by the author’s description of the “Vengeful Widow,” a fictional seasonal wind comparable to the Mistral.
While I agree with many of the criticisms in the other reviews, I thought the book was worth reading. In my view, there was too much emphasis on the pre-revolutionary French pornography business but I took it as a metaphor for being in career purgatory where you do a lot of things you really don’t want to do and take the opportunities you can to pursue your interests, which may seem impractical to everyone else. I wish the author could have done more with the protagonist Claude Page’s mother, an expert botanist.
While this book is fresh in my mind, the high points for me were Claude’s explorations of sounds from all kinds of sources, his obsessive interest in mechanical and animal movement, the friendships formed during his apprenticeship with the defrocked priest in his native Tournay and in Paris. I also liked the way author handles Claude’s brush with the French Revolution. Watchmaking is a big theme. Claude’s father was a watchmaker and there is discussion of connections between watchmaking and Claude's study of motion which I did not focus on so much. For me, it would take multiple readings to full appreciate this book.
While I agree with many of the criticisms in the other reviews, I thought the book was worth reading. In my view, there was too much emphasis on the pre-revolutionary French pornography business but I took it as a metaphor for being in career purgatory where you do a lot of things you really don’t want to do and take the opportunities you can to pursue your interests, which may seem impractical to everyone else. I wish the author could have done more with the protagonist Claude Page’s mother, an expert botanist.
While this book is fresh in my mind, the high points for me were Claude’s explorations of sounds from all kinds of sources, his obsessive interest in mechanical and animal movement, the friendships formed during his apprenticeship with the defrocked priest in his native Tournay and in Paris. I also liked the way author handles Claude’s brush with the French Revolution. Watchmaking is a big theme. Claude’s father was a watchmaker and there is discussion of connections between watchmaking and Claude's study of motion which I did not focus on so much. For me, it would take multiple readings to full appreciate this book.
May 26, 2018
My reaction to this book was rather mixed. Set in 18th-century France, it's the tale of Claude Page, son of an herbalist/healer, whose initial notoriety is that he bears a wart on his hand that resembles the king. A physician offers to remove it--but takes Claude's finger as well. Claude is sent to live with the Abbé, an atheistic dilettante, who recognizes the boy's talent for drawing and promises to educate him. However, Claude's main duties involve painting risqué scenes inside watch cases for the Abbé's clientele. When he discovers a talent for mechanical movement, he longs to be free to study the craft. Eventually, he ends up in Paris--but things do not work out quite as planned.
I found many of the characters to be both quirky and unique, but the overall pacing seems to be off. I was engaged in Claude's life in Tournay and his early employment with the Abbé, but there were times when the story dragged or felt repetitive. Things picked up when he got to Paris, but, again, I found myself getting bored, especially with all the descriptions of mechanical devices and equipment.
I found many of the characters to be both quirky and unique, but the overall pacing seems to be off. I was engaged in Claude's life in Tournay and his early employment with the Abbé, but there were times when the story dragged or felt repetitive. Things picked up when he got to Paris, but, again, I found myself getting bored, especially with all the descriptions of mechanical devices and equipment.
January 15, 2024
The jacket blurbs definitely do Kurzweil the justice his novel deserves. There are hints of Eco, Barth, and (perhaps colored in my recollection because I just read him) Boyle. This is a wonderfully clever historical fiction, detailing the life of a genius engineer as he goes from watchmaker to bookseller to pornographer to kept man to mechanic and back to genius engineer. The backdrop of (mostly) pre-Reign of Terror France is grimy, lived-in, full of memorable characters, and utterly believable.
Claude's bizarre, meandering biography takes the young man from a traumatic boyhood and then through a complex intellectual development (guided by a defrocked priest whose intellectual prowess is only matched by his utter lack of focus and attention span). His apprentice years and early adult life are fraught with bad employment and bad-for-him relationships, but all of this serves to set up the stark contrast of the book's triumphant final act, when he comes into the full potential of both his personal life and his personal inventive powers.
Claude's bizarre, meandering biography takes the young man from a traumatic boyhood and then through a complex intellectual development (guided by a defrocked priest whose intellectual prowess is only matched by his utter lack of focus and attention span). His apprentice years and early adult life are fraught with bad employment and bad-for-him relationships, but all of this serves to set up the stark contrast of the book's triumphant final act, when he comes into the full potential of both his personal life and his personal inventive powers.
August 22, 2020
An unknown gem!
A Case of Curiosities is a bizarre book about a young apprentice named Claude who wants to be a famous inventor but is eventually executed. He is the apprentice to an erotic bookseller and takes what he learns there and applies it to his watchmaking and affair with the wife of the wig maker. He creates a talking head that is the pinnacle of his career.
This book is a very interesting and enjoyable read. Just when you think it might get boring it reels you back in. You get the full picture of Claude's life from childhood to his execution and never get bored. Kurzwell is extremely good at bringing this 18th Century time period to life.
A Case of Curiosities is a bizarre book about a young apprentice named Claude who wants to be a famous inventor but is eventually executed. He is the apprentice to an erotic bookseller and takes what he learns there and applies it to his watchmaking and affair with the wife of the wig maker. He creates a talking head that is the pinnacle of his career.
This book is a very interesting and enjoyable read. Just when you think it might get boring it reels you back in. You get the full picture of Claude's life from childhood to his execution and never get bored. Kurzwell is extremely good at bringing this 18th Century time period to life.
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May 31, 2021(Uncorrected proof)
In one word? Neato. A lovely tale of a mechanical genius and his creation. It's organized in such a way as to echo it's own subject - and then again, in a smaller scale, and again. It's as interesting to read (and dissect) as any number of American Masterpieces. Only time will tell, but I think this has a good shot. Need to find out what the corrected, published version is like.
In one word? Neato. A lovely tale of a mechanical genius and his creation. It's organized in such a way as to echo it's own subject - and then again, in a smaller scale, and again. It's as interesting to read (and dissect) as any number of American Masterpieces. Only time will tell, but I think this has a good shot. Need to find out what the corrected, published version is like.
December 12, 2022
A very interesting story with some reverberating surprises along the way. I did not have a clue as to what or who I was going to learn about. But, not only did I learn more about clocks than I had intended, I also learned about automats and the science of sounds. Claude’s story is one I will never forget and Kurzweil’s writing style is intimately intriguing.
August 15, 2017
My main problem with this book is that the brilliant pieces of writing are drowned by the really pretentious story making.
Ever time I felt as close to the characters as I could be, there would be a terribly long passage following the brilliant piece that just confused me.
Ever time I felt as close to the characters as I could be, there would be a terribly long passage following the brilliant piece that just confused me.
September 11, 2023
Read this long ago and really enjoyed it. As a big fan of historical fiction, it simply hit the mark for me. Had to keep a dictionary close by, and part of the appeal may have been the way it stretched my brain.
December 18, 2023
Erudite and sometimes engaging picaresque novel about a young inventor. There are many words in this book and many pig trails through Claude's life. Not an easy read, but enjoyable until it isn't. I had to skim towards the end as I'd pretty much figured out where the tale was going.
May 4, 2017
Recommended by my then librarian, and spot on, too. I love curiosity cases and intricate stories.
April 2, 2019
Not for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews