Fiction 12 Aug 2004 13:59
The Confusion
The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 2)
Neal Stephenson
Attention: if you haven’t read Quicksilver yet, you will find a few spoilers in the text below.
The Confusion starts sometime after Quicksilver ends, and in it we go back to following the lives of our two of our main characters, Eliza and Jack (Daniel Waterhouse is largely on the sidelines in this book, but I expect he’ll be back in the third one). Eliza is busy getting rich and accumulating titles in Europe, while Jack is leading a very different, but no less interesting, life as a slave in Africa. Of course, with the aid of the rest of The Cabal, he escapes (using an amazingly well-designed plan) and goes through several adventures all over Asia and Latin America.
Eliza, meanwhile, is navigating a different sea, working her way through the murky waters of Versailles and other places where Persons of Quality dwell. As can be expected from any Neal Stephenson book, Jack’s actions half-way around the globe impact of Eliza’s life, and vice-versa, in ways that aren’t obvious to anyone excepted the reader, who can see both stories developing at the same time.
As in the first book, the backdrop for this one is the set of transformations happening in Europe (and in most of the “civilized” world) in the late 1600s and early 1700s. Newton, Leibniz and other philosophers have roles here, as do many kings, queens and other nobles. We’re introduced to the role Spain plays as the bringer of gold and silver from the New World into Europe, and we get to see the first hints of capitalism developing in England.
The third and final volume, The System of the World, will be released in September, and will certainly be a great book. As is this one.
