| Title | : | The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0060733357 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780060733353 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 815 |
| Publication | : | First published April 13, 2004 |
In Europe, the exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France's most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession.
Meanwhile, Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, dastardly plots are set in motion ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, #2) Reviews
-
Excerpt from the journal of Neal Stephenson.
What have I done? I must have been out of my mind to think that I could write a trilogy set in the late 17th and early 18th century that used three main fictional characters to explore the political and religious intrigue of the time as well as the development of the first stages of modern science and economics. If that wasn’t enough of a challenge, I had to incorporate a bit of science fiction by including my ageless character Enoch Root and hints that the alchemy of the day may have been on to something.
Oh, and just to complicate it even more, I made the brilliant decision to have one of my main characters from Quicksilver be in the midst of the late stages of syphilis as well as being captured by pirates. What was I thinking?? I’m going to need Jack to get me out of this mess, and I effectively killed him in the last book.
OK, let’s think this through. Where did I leave it? Eliza had seemingly managed to outwit King Louie and help William of Orange with her spying efforts, but she now had a child out of wedlock that she has to hide.
In 1713, Daniel Waterhouse had been recruited from his home in Massachusetts by Enoch Root to go back to England and mediate the dispute between Isaac Newtown and Leibniz, but his ship was being pursued by a pirate fleet. Back in the late 1600s, the younger Daniel Waterhouse had helped to bring about the Glorious Revolution, but was dying from a stone in his bladder.
And of course, Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds, had let his pride come between him and Eliza. Which shouldn’t matter because he would soon be dead from syphilis as well as being captured by pirates.
Now, here’s what I need to get to in the second book:
(*) Eliza needs to be essentially held hostage by the French nobility who know she spied for William, but they’ll still need her financial talents to help fund their war efforts.
(*) I want to use that set-up to have Eliza run a complicated financial scheme to get revenge for what’s been done to her.
(*) Since I flashed forward to an older Daniel Waterhouse at the beginning of Quicksilver, the readers will know that he ultimately survived having the stone. But I really don’t have a lot for him to do here. This is mainly Eliza and Jack’s story, and I won’t need him until the next book.
(*) Since the last book focused more on the Royal Society and science, this one is going to be more about economics. I can use Eliza and her on-going palace intrigues for that. Also, I can circle back to Isaac Newton and him taking over the Royal Mint. Wait a second! I can bring Daniel into that story. That’ll give him something to do.
(*) I also need to tie up the loose ends with Jack’s brother, Bob, who had gotten involved with Eliza and Daniel to free the woman he loved from slavery. Oh, hell. I forgot about Jack’s two sons. At this point, they’d be grown men. I gotta bring them into the story at some point.
(*) It’s time to bring the alchemical stuff to a boil. I’ve got an idea about legendary gold that King Solomon created that had unique properties. The acquisition of this gold should be a driving force to the plot, but I can’t figure out how to work it in.
(*) And here’s where I’m really stuck. I was going to have Jack roam the world and get involved in various wild schemes with a crew of misfits. They could have had a series of adventures. That would have been a great place to tie the gold into it as well as do a plot where the nobles are still hunting him for his actions in France that would put Eliza in a dangerous position. Plus, I could have done a lot of great action stuff with Jack as a globe trotting adventurer. But no. I had to get cute and give him syphilis.
(*) So I’m completely screwed unless I come up with some bullshit way for them to cure syphilis in the late 1600s. How am I going to….. Hold on. Just had a thought. Could I get away with that? Why not? I’m Neal Stephenson, goddamnit! I can do anything!
(*) One thing is for sure, I’ve got a pretty accurate title: The Confusion. -
“When a thing such as wax, or gold, or silver, turns liquid from heat, we say that it has fused,” Eliza said to her son, “and when such liquids run together and mix, we say they are con-fused.”
- Neal Stephenson, The Confusion
Part Two of Stephenson's massive Baroque Cycle consists of Books 4 and 5 (Part One, if it isn't obvious, consisted of Books 1-3). Since both books 4. Bonanza and5. Juncto are concurrent, Stephenson threads/interleaves the two books together (hence Con-Fusion).
This volume continues with the major characters: Daniel Waterhouse, Eliza, Bob Shaftoe, & Jack Shaftoe, along with a host of other fantastic characters both real (Newton, Leibniz, Louis IV, Pepys) and imagined. Like the previous volume, 'The Confusion' takes place during the end of the Nine Years' War (and the period shortly after) and explores the beginning of the Enlightenment, complete with politics, war, modern economics, science and the scientific method, currency, information technology, trade, religion and cryptography. Usually, when Newton or Leibniz are discoursing, Stephenson is waxing philosophic about atoms, thinking machines, or currency.
Fundamentally, these books are historical fiction for geeks. He pushes some people and events to the point of soft-SF/mysticism (I'm thinking of Enoch Root, a man who appears and disappears and acts as a catalyst for change throughout time). It wasn't perfect and there were some points where I was a turned-off by the jocular humor, but these were minor issues. It isn't close to high art, but it is a fascinating read. -
3.25 stars?
I found this second volume of the trilogy more engaging than the first, but I'm still underwhelmed. Stephenson indulges in so much detail. He has obviously done a pile of research and is determined that the reader knows about it. At least this volume spent more page time on my preferred characters, Eliza and Jack.
This is a real round-the-world tour, as Jack Shaftoe and his Cabal go to places as diverse as Egypt, India, the Philippines, China, Japan, and Mexico. Circumstances are never easy for Jack and he is forever having to plot and plan his way out of one scrape or another. Eliza doesn't get everything her own way either. She deals with financial schemes with élan, but must deal with smallpox, raise several children (one of whom is abducted), and convince the men around her that they should follow her advice. They are both the worse for wear when they see one another again briefly.
I had to interlibrary loan this and will have to do the same with the third volume. It will have to wait a while, but I foolishly hope to get to it before the end of the year.
Book Number 466 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project -
Wow, I can't even remember when I started this book, 800+ pages as the second book in the 2400+ page The Baroque Cycle trilogy. I feel like a water-skier being pulled by a boat--sections have pulled me along thrillingly with wake-jumping stunts and all. The last couple of hundred pages moved like this. Other parts could not hold my interest, as if the boat didn't have enough power to pull me up out of the water--I have put this one down for months at a time and had to consciously make efforts to pick it back up.
I am floored by the scope of these novels. I have grown insanely curious about the next book Stephenson may or may not be writing, wondering what could possibly follow. Tada! His Wikipedia
page says it is named "
Anathem" and said to be a "space opera". I can't wait, but I still have System of the World to go.
Stephenson is able to simply relate, often something like a Socratic dialogue, descriptions of complicated material, glossing over just enough detail to not lose you but including enough that the uninitiated still understand important concepts--encryption in Cryptonomicon; the workings of computers in most of his novels; markets, trade, and financial mechanisms in this trilogy. Surprising me was the explanation of Liebniz' monadology. I studied Liebniz' philosophies somewhat extensively in college, but now I feel as if I missed the entire point. More likely is that my viewpoint has changed--most likely I was put off by Liebniz' pious lexicon, or perhaps one of the courses was biased toward him being overshadowed by Kant. I now have the desire to reread some of his work. I have a renewed interest in history as well--I read with a vague sense of familiarity, but I wish I retained more from high school European history. Some Wikipedia surfing is in my future--I am especially curious what parts of the novel are history and what parts are artistic license. On to The System of the World. -
Reviewing one of Stephenson's tomes is always difficult; this is a huge book with many redeeming and not so redeeming aspects. Stephenson tells us in the prologue that The Confusion is basically two books 'con-fused' together; the two story arcs run parallel in time, so Stephenson gives us a linear narrative divided into two related but discrete tales here. The first follows Eliza-- the former harem slave girl 'half-cocked Jack' rescued from the siege of Vienna by the Turks. The second follows Jack himself following his abduction and enslavement by the Barbary corsairs (this happened in
Quicksilver, and it was obvious his character would return at some point in his massive saga). Of course, we also have a broad supporting cast, including Jack's brother Bob, an array of French nobility (including the king), Liebnitz (the German 'natural philosopher'), and the 'cabal' of slaves associated with Jack (in Algiers to start with), some of which where introduced in the last volume as well. All in all, The Confusion covers about 15 years, from roughly 1688 to 1703 or so.
Quicksilver ended with Eliza being captured by a French privateer while trying to flee to England with the fortune she made in Holland. Due to various machinations, she is a minor noble in France and England. Eliza, her funds absconded by the privateers, is in a state of limbo as since she is a French noble, having her fortune taken by a French privateer is questionable at minimum. Jack on the other hand, the former 'King' of the vagabonds, connives with 9 slaves an audacious plot to pirate a large shipment of silver the former Viceroy of Mexico is bringing back to Spain and win his freedom (along with the rest of the cabal) at the same time.
Having given the basic set up, I will stop with the plotting; Stephenson takes us on a vast journey here (over 800 pages in the hardcover). The Confusion is not nearly as focused as Quicksilver (and that is saying something). Basically, the main features of the plot revolved around a few aspects. First, the financial system in place in the late 18th century in Europe receives a lot of attention-- bills of credit, money matters, etc. The war between England and France really serves as a backdrop to highlight the issues of state finance, as both England and France need money to pursue the war, and neither has a functioning system. France relies primarily on rents from the various estates to fund itself and somewhat dubious letters of credit. England struggles to finance basically anything and money (e.g., coins) have basically disappeared from the population after having been debased to worthlessness. The financial aspects are at times brilliant and other times quite mundane. I loved the discussion of how money or credit was moved around/among the various European nations, but this may bore some to tears. Essentially, the silver from the new world minted by Spain is the common currency of most of the world by now, but neither France nor England have much means to put their hands on it. Eliza's renown as a financier moves this story arc along.
Jack's story arc, on the other hand, primarily serves as a means to highlight the various political situations all over the world. His journey takes us from Algiers to Spain (for the heist), then to Cairo, then to India. Mild spoiler-- he manages to travel around the world in this one literally! Stephenson's portrayal of India reeks of Orientalism; perhaps because it is narrated through Jack's eyes, but this was definitely one of the less redeeming features of the novel. Nonetheless, the research required must have been substantial to say the least, and Stephenson gives us views of India, Japan, the Philippines and the Americas in a very tongue and cheek way as Jack's adventures continue.
So, basically, The Confusion gives us late mercantile finance in Europe in spades, and a world tour of politics and economics/trade. I can see why people love this-- as a work of historical fiction, Stephenson gives us a vivid and lucid look at the world circa the late 17th century, warts and all. On the other hand, I can see why people would be bored to tears with this one as well. It really lacks the relatively fast pacing of the Quicksilver, along with the evolving scientific discussions and actual scientists introduced there. Sure, we run into Newton and John Locke, but Leibnitz and some of his theories are really marginal to the story. Pretty mixed on this one, but I will settle for 3 stars. -
The Confusion is a typical second book of an atypical trilogy, and that is not at all a criticism. The second book of trilogies always bridge the gap between the first and the last with a focus on character, plot development and building the framework for the payoff. When this is done well, as with The Two Towers, the second installment can hold its own with any installment in the trilogy; when this is done very well, as with Empire Strikes Back (I apologize for the movie reference), it can outshine any installment in the trilogy. When it comes to Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, I am not sure which of these two models The Confusion follows, but it is, at least, one of them.
And now I will digress: I have heard from many that this is one of the most original works they have ever read. I don't doubt that it is the most original work that these folks have read, but that doesn't make it "original." Saying that it is not original is again, however, not a criticism, and it is certainly not a failing in Stephenson's work.
I love Stephenson's Cycle, but as a fan of classic literature, particularly the work of Hugo and Dumas, I know that Stephenson is borrowing greatly from his forebears (who were borrowing from theirs, like Cervantes). I cannot stress enough that this is not a bad thing. It is what makes Stephenson's series compulsively readable. Everything old is new again, to borrow an old cliche. Which is precisely what makes The Baroque Cycle so "original" for today's audiences. It is sprawling, larger than any possible life, packed full of historical figures made characters, it is fiction and fact writ together as crazed adventure.
What Stephenson does is brilliant, modernizing classic story-telling forms to remind us just how great the classics remain. Anyone who loves a good yarn or just plain loves books should read the Cycle and revel in its sheer audacious brilliance.
But don't tell me it has never been done before. Just read it, love it and then start reading everyone who came before. -
finished the reread of Confusion and while the short review I wrote on the original read is still relevant, the book like the whole Baroque cycle benefits so much on the reread as now I can appreciate the little details too;
this being said, The Confusion (the title word itself having quite a few apparitions in the text as the "transition" word from the old to the new) is the most epic adventure/intrigue/picaresque novel of the three, told in chronological order alternating between action in Europe from Eliza's pov with a few interludes from Daniel - under the heading Juncto - and action across the world (from Algiers and Cairo to India, Japan and much more) from Jack and his Cabal of Barbary Coast galley slaves with a (desperate) plan to get free and rich - under the heading Bonanza
the action starts immediately at the end of Odalisque (third part of Quicksilver) just after the Glorious Revolution in 1689 and ends in 1702 at the start of the second round of the war of Leroy (as the Sun King is colloquially known to Jack especially since their memorable personal encounter at a Paris party of 1685) against the rest of the (European) world (this round known as the Spanish Succession war)
large scale, full of dramatic action, incredible escapes, double crosses, continual reversals of fortunes (in Mogul India, Jack even becomes a temporary king which makes him a sort of cousin of Leroy himself while Eliza, ennobled by both Leroy - ennobling involving a fake sexual encounter masking the king's hemorrhoid surgery - and his nemesis William of Orange - ennobling involving this time a real intimate encounter though of the kind doable with either men or women as William is impartial there and even invites his handsome personal squire to watch and "take notes" as it were - needs to consolidate her position as her enemies are still of higher rank and ready to pounce) and all around fun, with some of the best secondary characters in fiction - some of which we actually have encountered in the future/present (1713-4) part that starts the trilogy in Quicksilver (novel and part 1 of the same name) not realizing who they are
So after a book starting in Boston 1713 and alternating between that and the personal story of Daniel Waterhouse (and Isaac Newton) from the 1650's to 1673, jumping to 1683, the Siege of Vienna and Jack saving a harem slave of the Grand Vizier and then having her quickly take charge of their joint fortunes and traveling Europe together and then apart until 1685 and Jack's ill considered decision to enter the slave trade (and Eliza's emphatic response to that) and then a third book following Eliza's ascent in Europe and Daniel's conspiring to bring a newfangled revolution in England until 1689, tales which connect but also jump sometimes in disconcerting ways - especially on first read - Confusion by its chapter split between its two tales brings a different and more coherent feel to the book while offering the most spectacular action of the trilogy
These two volumes (Quicksilver and The Confusion) in 5 parts and 3 tales offer together a fairly coherent story with a clear (temporary) ending (though again we know from the beginning that we will have action in 1713-1714) and are as spectacular and exciting as anything I've read
(2008 review on first read)
Superb sequel to Quicksilver. Continues the (mis) adventures of Jack Shaftoe and an assorted odd group of Pirate slaves that conceive a crazy plan to get freedom and a treasure, plan that develops a hitch when one of Jack's noble sworn enemies turns out to be involved deeply in.
In the other main thread Elisa is still looking to establish herself in high society and revenge on the unknown noble that led to her and her mother's enslavement.
On the way we have tragedy, joy, action and lots of digressions of the creation of money and the modern banking system, with the natural philosophy more in the background than in the first volume.
Excellent. -
The Confusion is Book Two of the Baroque Cycle. While it is an excellent book it did not strike me as profoundly as the first book (Quicksilver). But even a mediocre NS book tends to tower over any rivals and this book, by no means, is to be considered mediocre.
If you are familiar with the Baroque cycle, you know that the story centers around a few "main" characters through whom the events of history are viewed. The first book introduced us to the Baroque age and all the changes occurring in society. This book picks up where the other left off (good thing since this is the 2nd volume). However, the key focus of this book is money. The development of the modern economy and NS even hints at concepts like price manipulation, currency exchange rates, banking and even the value of specie in relation to the amount of gold or silver in supply.
Does this sound like a yawn-inducing MBA primer? No worries there is plenty of sex, violence and humor. It is a NS book after all. There are two novels in this book (as the first) and they are "Bonanza" and "Juncto". This time the stories occur concurrently instead of during different times.
Bonanza follows Jack Shaftoe's adventures in escaping as a galley slave and then joining the "Cabal". His strange voyages have him go from India to Japan. Jack is a great character and a pleasure to follow his ribald adventures.
Juncto follows Bob Shaftoe and Eliza. This overall, with Eliza, follows the foundation of the Bank of England whilst Bob is working with Leibniz and Newton, as well as setting up what will one day be M.I.T.
Perhaps the idea of the book focusing on the monetary aspects being developed during this time made it slightly less interesting to me than the first book which focused more on scientific methods. Still the future is evident here as countries try to break away from using precious metals to paper money and bills of exchange. In undergraduate and during my Fulbright I had suffered through enough economics/finance and random Business classes to titillate most hard-core MBA types (I'm a history guy myself..just well educated) to see the brilliance of NS taking horridly boring concepts relating to finance and then dressing them up as a story to convey many financial principles that econ textbooks have trouble elucidating. Some might read the entire book and being caught up in the events never even realize the solid economic principles being espoused. Credit to NS for taking such dry topics and spicing them up using the vehicle of storytelling.
That being said the relentless emphasis on all things financial can make this a book that isn't as fun to read as the first volume. Hence the 4 stars. ios this a good book? Certainly. A great book? Some might find it to be so. I enjoyed it and would recommend it with the caveat that the first book is more exciting (perhaps because it was original).
A nice little read. Can't say I am in a huge rush for book 3. But should I run into it before the year is out I may likely check in to see how the story ends. Highly recommended for anyone that likes NS. Anyone who wants a story introduction to how modern finance came about will also enjoy ferreting out the history and the logic of these events. Want to give your brain a bit of a workout? Go for this one. -
knjiga je mrvicu slabija od prethodne, ali i dalje urnebesna, nevjerojatna, sumanuta i na trenutke mučna, kao vožnja na rollercoasteru. 4.5
-
The jig is up, the news is out
They finally found me
The renegade who had it made
Retrieved for a bounty...
—From
"Renegade", on the 1978 album Pieces of Eight by Styx
If you have been reading my reviews with the close attention that I hope and pray you have, then you saw me mention upon rereading
Quicksilver, the first volume of
Neal Stephenson's
Baroque Cycle, that the most fun was to be had during the swashbuckling and adventurous sections involving Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds (in French, L'Emmerdeur), that most romantic renegade (who had become, if you'll recall, by the end of that book), and Eliza, the love of Jack's life, whom we left as .
(Those are, by the way, the last explicit spoiler warnings I'm going to issue in this review—if you have not already read
Quicksilver then quick, hie thee to the previous installment, lest your eyeballs be assaulted by that which you do not wish to see.)
But if you are of the same mind as I am about Jack and Eliza's value as entertainment, I have exceedingly good news.
The Confusion, the second volume of The Baroque Cycle, interleaves two distinct narratives, both of them quite romantic and swashbuckling, and both focused primarily (though not solely) on our favorite star-crossed couple: to wit, the globe-spanning "Bonanza" of our friend Jack, and the more strictly European "Juncto" involving our increasingly influential inamorata Eliza.
In short,
The Confusion is faster-paced, and more action-oriented, than
Quicksilver.
Bonanza is, it turns out, not just a TV show or a concept—Bonanza is a place, an historic Spanish port serving the Andalusian city of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Columbus and Magellan both sailed from there. But, more importantly for
The Confusion, the Bonanza is where shiploads of gold from the New World flowed in to Spain.
The title of that Styx album now seems even more apropos.
Jack Shaftoe, that Renegade among renegades, and a colorful cabal of his fellow galley slaves have hatched a complicated scheme to divert a particular shipful of that Mexican gold—enough to buy their freedom, to pay off their masters for letting them conspire in the first place, and even to set themselves up in business afterwards. The surprising consequences of that scheme take them as far away as Japan (where I was myself surprised by a connection with the setting of
David Mitchell's
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet) before wandering back to Europe.
Their journey is... eventful.
The Juncto sections are, in contrast, somewhat less colorful, at least in terms of exotic locations and stirring battles (though Eliza does take one memorable sleigh ride early in the book), but they're no less full of twists, turns and intrigue, and are certainly no less important to the story.
These chapters are also where Stephenson can fully indulge his penchant for witty observations:If Daniel had hopes of weaseling out, he had to do it now. To Roger Comstock, silence implied not merely consent, but a blood oath.
And to include arch references to future events, as when Stephenson says of Sir Richard Apthorp's country dwelling,
—p.489This bland countryside seemed oddly well suited for the hiding of secrets in plain sight.
The rural estate in question is called
—p.495
Bletchley.
Throughout
The Confusion, the narratives of the Juncto and the Bonanza—of Eliza and Jack—weave around each other, approaching ever closer but never quite touching. Meanwhile, the con-fusion proceeds apace, with the disposition of that ship's worth of gold in doubt more than once.
Of course, a lot more than one star-crossed romance is going on... various royal figures die and are replaced by others; the Royal Society continues replacing alchemy with science, while Sir Isaac Newton is placed in charge of the Mint; and so on... Stephenson continues to portray the grand sweep of history through the personal anecdotes and asides that make the Baroque Cycle such a lively read.
And then... another cliffhanger ending—and it's no spoiler to tell you that
The Confusion's conclusion is every bit as dark as that of, say,
The Empire Strikes Back. But never fear; there is a third volume in the series, and
The System of the World promises to pull together all the tangled threads that, for now,
Neal Stephenson has had to leave hanging... -
Deeper into the wordy quagmire that is Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle. As with
Quicksilver, this volume contains a considerable dose of magical moments dissolved in a nearly impenetrable sea of overdone gibberish. It’s brilliant gibberish, but not brilliant enough to make this book shine the way I typically expect from Stephenson. While enhancing the Baroque Cycle’s thematic strengths and moving the saga forward in promising ways, The Confusion is ultimately every bit as languorous as Quicksilver.
This volume neglects the Baroque Cycle’s most interesting plot thread––Stephenson’s fictionalized account of the intellectual development and personal squabbles of 17th century Europe’s Enlightenment figures––for nearly 500 pages. Daniel Waterhouse is the most maligned victim of Stephenson’s overreach. Save a decidedly moving scene in which he brings a floundering Isaac Newton to his senses, Daniel’s narrative is largely put on hold here.
Our consolation is that the lives of Jack Shaftoe and Eliza of Qwghlm become more complex (if not always more interesting). These two signify the social upheaval and economic recalibration that swept through Europe (and the rest of the world, to varying extents) as the 17th century came to a close. They are the figureheads of Confusion, that great handmaiden of Progress.
Jack Shaftoe, it turns out, is not dead. His body having purged itself of the maddening French Pox, Jack teams up with an eclectic cabal of similarly disenfranchised galley slaves to win their freedom. The antics of this motley bunch are variously inspiring, puzzling, and yawn-inducing. During the decade leading up to 1700, they gallivant through Barbary, the Middle East, “Hindoostan,” the Far East, and the New World, before returning to Europe. Along the way, they manage to steal a boatload of “magic gold,” which enhances Jack’s already considerable mystique as Europe’s most audacious rapscallion. Jack solidifies his reputation as a ruthless pragmatist, and his diverse gang of freedom-seekers serves as Stephenson’s metaphorical conduit for inserting a modern sense of self-determination into a thoroughly antiquated historical setting. As a general idea, it’s clever and fun. Jack is charismatic and exhibits just enough moral complexity to pique my curiosity about how his unfolding odyssey will terminate. Unfortunately, his story is cluttered with bizarre, boring adventures that rarely influence the Baroque Cycle’s overarching plot. Important events do happen, but slowly, ever so slowly.
Eliza has grown on me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about her after Quicksilver, but I think it’s fair to say she propounds a strange sort of feminism after all, and isn’t quite the bimbo with brains I thought she was. Similar to Jack, she is a vehicle for unlikely (but inevitable) fits of progress in a stifling world. She is unusually assertive and laudably subversive, but also tragically subject to the confines of Baroque gender roles. Her most intriguing quality is her relationship with the French aristocracy, which turns up its nose at her humble origins but can’t deny her intellectual cunning and financial savvy. Despite her past, Eliza is eventually declared a Duchess by Louis XIV––a historically significant concession that marks the decline of monarchic power and the rise of the mercantile class and free markets. Later, she marries (unhappily) into a very powerful French family. Though Eliza is forced to assume traditional wifely responsibilities, she retains her passion for independence, her economic acuity, and her steadfast hatred of the slave trade. She is a woman of contradictions sprung from traits and perspectives ahead of her time. Unfortunately, as with Jack’s tale, Eliza’s story is tarnished by Stephenson’s inability to quell his discursive predilections. Ideas that could be communicated in a few carefully-chosen scenes get lost in a barrage of monetary minutiae, epistolary doldrums, and tiresome aristocratic bickering.
Perhaps the saddest aspect of both Eliza and Jack is that they seem more coherent when understood as symbols rather than as actual people, a quality that makes for excellent intellectual fodder but prevents me from making an emotional commitment to them.
The farther I fall down the Baroque Cycle’s rabbit hole, the more I find myself begrudgingly enthralled by the project’s scope, if not its nuts and bolts. Perhaps I am just desperate to justify my efforts after 1,700+ pages, with nearly 900 left to go. I’ll stand by my claim that it’s far from Stephenson’s best work, but I’m beginning to doubt that I will get to the end and feel I’ve wasted my time. Despite its flaws, The Confusion concludes with a series of highly entertaining and genuinely meaningful flourishes, mostly having to do with Jack’s return to England. Perhaps it’s not too much to hope it all might come together in a climax most marvelous, one befitting Stephenson’s ambitions and undeniable genius.
This review was originally published on my blog,
words&dirt. -
I remember like it was yesterday when I first read Neal Stephenson. I learned about him from a lit blog in 2004 when I had started reading blogs but had not yet started my own. I read Snow Crash (1992) and was blown away. He opened up a whole new world of reading for me called "cyber punk" and led me to William Gibson and on from there.
I have read Stephenson's books in the order he wrote them: The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver. The only glitch is that his books are so long and take me over a week to read. I never seem to catch up. Every time a new Stephenson comes out (Reamde came out last September) I read another one, but I am still behind by three.
Cryptonomicon (1999) was his first venture into the past, with part of the action taking place in the present, being the 1990s at that point, and the remainder during World War II. The infamous Bobby Shaftoe makes his first appearance.
Then in 2003 came Quicksilver (the first volume of a trilogy, The Baroque Cycle.) These books are set in the 1600s. We meet the original Bobby Shaftoe, aka King of the Vagabonds, aka Half-cocked Jack, due to an unfortunate incident involving his cock. We also meet the indomitable Eliza, Isaac Newton, Leibniz, Louis XIV, and a lesser known member of the Royal Society, Daniel Waterhouse, whose descendant is a major player in Crytonomicon.
I got to meet Neal Stephenson once, the year that Books Expo America was held in Los Angeles. I blurted out garbled gushing phrases about what a big fan I was and got an autographed copy of Anathem. I will read that one of these days. He is a tiny, slim guy with no hair on his head but a dark beard on his face. He exudes a calm intelligence and is possessed of a shy nature. Hard to believe that he can hold all that he knows in his head--proof to me that the mind is not the brain.
So The Confusion is volume two of The Baroque Cycle. In 815 pages the story moves along a mere four years. Eliza has her tale of woes and triumphs centered in the court of Louis XIV; alternating chapters follow Bobby Shaftoe and his pirate adventures from Spain to Mexico to the Middle East to India and back to England.
Though the volume is packed with action, adventure, sorrow, and history, it seemed just a tad slow compared to Stephenson's earlier books. However, it has been four years since I read Quicksilver. I do remember in each earlier book times when I felt held back by his torrents of words.
I think he is laying a strong and sturdy foundation that will support the conclusions he comes to in the final volume, The System of the World. While these books are hyper-active historical fiction, they are also a look at the foundations of the political, monetary, and scientific issues we now live and grapple with in our daily lives. Never have I had so much fun learning history.
Thoughts on rereading in 2020: I hardly remembered anything. It was like reading it for the first time. Not slow moving! I think I might have been too ignorant about the world, history, and geography to take it all in the first time. This one is all about trade, finance and treachery. It is for sure the set up for the third book and I now feel set up to read it and understand it. We think lately, or worry, that the world is getting worse, but truly human beings on planet Earth have always been leading a mostly insane course and what we have going on now is still following that trajectory. Will Leibnitz and Newton ever get along? I will find out in The System of the World. -
The Confusion is Captain Jack to Quicksilver's
Old Jack. This is adventure, much more in the mould of Wilbur Smith - heaps of fun (as my Aussie relatives say!). It's still got that twisty-turny rambling-Stephenson plot, that's as much of a world-tour as it is a narrative arc, but where I thought Quicksilver was utterly fascinating, I thought The Confusion was truly enjoyable - both get 5-stars, but surprisingly different books!
I have 40+ books sitting on my 'review-soon' shelf that I just don't have time to write proper reviews for, so I'm going to bash out as many of these mini-reviews as I can before Christmas :-)
After this I read:
Rivers of London -
Fantastic book! As long as _Quicksilver_, this book feels shorter. There is less natural philosophy and more swashbuckling (including a complete circumnavigation of the globe). There's a bit about the alchemical properties of King Solomon's gold and some pre-Enlightenment chemical engineering. Additionally, there is a significant amount of banking, as many of the events in the book orbit the disintegration of the traditional feudal land economy of Europe and the rise to dominance of a market economy driven by international trade. We also are clued in to the conceptualization and creation of the first computing machines. Other than that, this novel is all over the place. So far, The Baroque Cycle is a really great story. Give it a chance if you have a lot of time on your hands.
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8/10
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As the Author’s Note informs the reader, The Confusion is really two novels, merged (or, in a pun this novel rather over-uses, con-fused) into one by interlacing their chapters, Bonanza and Juncto, with respectively Jack and Eliza as main characters (Daniel remains somewhat in the background for this volume). Events begin some time (years for Jack, months for Eliza) after we left them in Quicksilver, and that proves to be something of a problem – after enjoying the previous novel more than I had been expecting to, I almost gave up on The Confusion because of the incredibly clunky way Stephenson catches up on what happened in the time that has passed.
Stephenson is often praised as master of the infodump, but what we get here are a series of extremely clumsy dialogues that would have been cause of much eye-rolling even in a debut novel, but coming from someone who already has several novels under his belt and has shown that he can do better this is extremely annoying. He even has to give Jack amnesia for the sole purpose so that someone can narrate his own history back to him, which everything considered might be even worse than the infamous
“As you know, Bob” variety of infodumping because it is such an obvious and at the same time so very weak attempt to avoid it that it smacks of desperation.
Fortunately, the novel eventually gets caught up and rolling, and things take a marked turn for the better compared to Quicksilver. Admittedly, the “Juncto” (Eliza) part of The Confusion still gets bogged down in the swamp of pointless details Stepenson drives the (often somewhat meagre) plot through as well as his continued attempts to be Deep and Meaningful; but then there are the chapters with Bob Shaftoe (Jack’s brother) as protagonist who somewhat make up for that by presenting a rousing tale of love and vengeance in the context of English warfare at the period.
And there is “Bonanza”, the other part / novel making up The Confusion which again has Jack Shaftoe as protagonist and which is even better than “King of Vagabonds,” the second part of Quicksilver. Jack travels not only in Europe this time, but gets to visit exotic places like India, the Americas and even Japan in a series of increasingly outrageously adventures, making and losing his fortunes several times over, acquiring the gold of Solomon and being chased for it by dastardly foes. He remains the lovable rogue throughout, and Stephenson thankfully does not skimp on the rogue part – Jack does not have many scruples in the pursuit of this goals, and is not someone even the most kindly inclined reader would enjoy spending time with. But he certainly is a lot of fun to read about, and more than once this particular reader wished Neal Stephenson had just written a neo-Picaresque novel with Jack as hero and dispensed with all the stuff about Science, Finances and Enlightenment – whose only real function is to give the author room to brag about the huge amount of mostly useless information he has accumulated – and focussed on travels, roguery and swashbuckling. I know, I know – I’m sounding like a complete philistine here, but it’s such a waste and a pity to see what could have been a splendid adventure novel buried under so much extraneous dross. Still, there is less dross here than in Quicksilver, so maybe there still is hope for Neal Stephenson, and the best volume of the Baroque Cycle is still to come. -
I'm writing this review of Neal Stephenson's The Confusion after finishing it and the final book in his The Baroque Cycle. So you can be sure that this review is going to be full of the sort of specifics and vivid details that make book reviews interesting. And you can be sure that, if I didn't think the entire concept took away from the art of reading and writing, that last sentence would have an upside down exclamation mark at the end of it, opensarcasm.com style.
My main problem with The Confusion, as with the entire cycle, is the sheer amount of detail. It seems strange that I, as a lover of the nineteenth century novel, should ever voice this complaint. But there it is. There were some fantastic moments in The Confusion, full of action, suspense, and surprise, but I felt like, to get to them, I had to read through chapters and chapters of descriptions--nautical details, explanations of economic theory, or complete prose maps of cities from the arches of famous monuments to the consistency of the gravel streets to the filth of the underground sewers--that slowed my reading to a halting and tedious speed that could only be compared to the speed of a frail woman wading through tar in a heavy velvet ball gown. (It can only be compared to that: no other metaphor will do.) I feel as if I can't really fault Stephenson for this. If I forced my mind to focus, his descriptions or explanations were lively, controlled, and often witty, but my mind wanted to leave the tar-wading woman behind and get to the action.
Though Stephenson's cast grew to include new and engaging characters like Moseh, the clever man with the plan, Dappa, the articulate linguist, and Jeronimo, the hot-headed warrior, and continued to develop characters from Quicksilver like the schemer Eliza and the sergeant Bob, Jack, the king of the vagabonds, dominated my interest in this installment of the cycle. Like the pirate that shares his name in the multimillion dollar motion picture franchise, Jack is a sort of chaotic neutral character with inimitable style that is constantly forced to choose between what is honorable and what the imp of perverse in his mind is selfishly egging him on to do. Though the reader knows Jack well and can likely predict which side he is going to choose, Jack is by no means predictable. He is far too cunning and wild to be predictable. Readers may know what he is going to choose, but never how he will choose it, and Jack's style makes him all about the "how".
My strongest commendation for The Confusion is likely that, as soon as I finished it, I was more than eager to start the The System of the World.
"For every human being who is born into this universe is like a child who has been given a key to an infinite Library, written in cyphers that are more or less obscure, arranged by a scheme--of which we can at first know nothing, other than that there does appear to be some scheme--pervaded by a vapor, a spirit, a fragrance that reminds us that it was the work of our Father. Which does us no good whatever, other than to remind us, when we despair, that there is an underlying logic about it, that was understood once and can be again."
"People could only make sense of complicated matters through stories." -
This is the second volume in
Stephenson's Baroque cycle.
At the end of the last book, Half Cocked Jack was a Galley Slave off the Barbary Coast, Eliza was making a run with her baby from the continent to London, and Daniel Waterhouse had Joined the Royal Court and taken a Mistress.
This book picks up several years later. Eliza is captured and brought back to France, Daniel's Mistress died of small pox, and Jack has been cured of the Syph by some sort of extraordinarily high fever, although it has left him with some sort of amnesia.
Jack joins a cabal of galley slaves with a plot to make themselves free. This plan inadvertently becomes embroiled with Eliza living back in France in the Royal Court. Her life is in turn interacting from afar with Daniel Waterhouse, who is involved with the Marquis of Ravenscar who is leading the newly formed Whig party in British Parliment.
This book follows Jack (literally) around the world, as he tries to get free from slavery and poverty, getting into all sorts of swashbuckling madcap adventures along the way. Daniel is just trying to get by and move to Massachusetts with the other puritans. Eliza is just trying to get revenge on the slave trade and failing that keep her family together.
This story is told as two novels, interspersed and shuffled together. The shuffling is well done, and you generally do not jump around in time too much. For all you OS nerds (like myself) out there, it is reminiscent of how two processes time share the physical processor together. Message passing and everything, as the various story arcs affect each other in surprising and interesting ways.
Historically, this book cover's the late 17th century war Between England and France, the reign of William and Mary in England, the Reign of Louis XIV in France, the Japanese Isolationism, the expansion of South and East Asian sea trade with Europe, Mexican Colonialism, and the Spanish Inquisition.
As ever,
Neal Stephenson's writing style is entertaining and interesting. This book reads faster than the previous volume
Quicksilver. Also, Neal Stephenson obviously traveled to many of the places he wrote about in this book. Many of the places in this book that I have actually visited (like Acapulco) are very accurately described.
I read this book because I am reading the Baroque cycle. All sorts of smart dudes in the know recommend that book series to me. -
Oh my god if I read any more tedious exposition I'm going to find you and throw this book at you. And it's big, it'll hurt. It'd be a lot smaller if you just told the story. Oh, and now you skip the part of the story with the action just so you can tell me what happened in more tedious exposition? Fuck You Neal Stephenson, I used to like you!
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It feels like
Quicksilver, the first book in this series, was just an (extended!) prologue, establishing the setting and characters, as we finally start getting some plot in this one. This one interleaves the stories of Jack Shaftoe, last seen being taken as a slave on the high seas, and Eliza, the woman he rescued, ironically enough, from slavery. After Jack somehow gets better from syphilis, he joins with a diverse group of fellow slaves, escapes, steals a vast horde of treasure and goes on the lam. Eliza, meanwhile, loses and regains her own fortune, becomes a duchess twice over, has a child kidnapped, gets her revenge, takes several lovers, as well as helping free a young woman from slavery (and the scene with Bob and Abigail is among my highlights of the book).
We occasionally drop in on Daniel Waterhouse and other characters from the first book, but not very often or for very long. This is very much Jack and Eliza's book. I've always liked Eliza, right from the moment we met her in the last volume, and nothing here changes that. She continues to show the strength of character and flexibility of mind that's a joy to read. I was never hugely fond of Jack, meanwhile, in the last book, but he's grown on me here. He still makes awful decisions, but he's charming and genuinely wants to do the right thing, when he can.
Stephenson still piles in the words. He gleefully discusses, in great detail, various complex financial machinations and how they can be used for mischief, most of which I still don't understand, and don't think it's worth the hours of my life to go back and reread in greater detail. But for all that, it's remarkably readable. Although part of me wonders how much that's through being inured to it by reading Quicksilver first.
I definitely want to know where the story is going next, but I think I'll take a break and read something a bit lighter (and shorter) before tackling the conclusion to the series. I still don't think it's science fiction though. -
I just can't do it anymore. After almost a year of trying to slog through this book, picking it up and putting it back down repeatedly, I only made it to page 244.
I give up. -
2020 review: I don't like this one as much as Quicksilver, though I definitely like this one a lot too. Maybe too much jumping back and forth? Because I want to complain that there's not enough Daniel, or Eliza, but there are plenty of them. And I like Jack's Cabal and I like reading about them, too. I dunno.
Stephenson paints many things as farcical and absurd, and when he's doing it to European practices it feels okay, but when he's doing it in "Hindoostan" it started to feel a little icky to me. Like the bit with Jack in the pit of the animal hospital, feeding the bloodsuckers. A little Othering. Or the bit with the pirate queen of Malabar. But maybe I just think that because I'm the one who's white, so I'm the one doing the Othering? I'm not sure.
All in all though, still pretty great, not too much discussion of guns or money in this one, which is nice.
Oh, and Gabriel Goto is underdrawn and underused, and feels shoehorned in just to make a Cryptonomicon connection. Sorry, Father Gabriel. I wish I knew ye better.
2011 review: Loved it once again the second time through. I think I'll bump it up to five stars, in fact. My enjoyment doesn't get much more total than this.
Finished the second time on our honeymoon, around February 28, 2011. (Yes, I lugged this thing across Costa Rica and back.) -
El más flojo de los que he leído de Stephenson hasta ahora.
Pasan tantas cosas que marea. Es como si la trama fuese tan abigarrada que hay que abrirse paso a machetazos. Hay varias historias simultáneas que se entrecruzan pero llega un momento que me cansó. No le falta genialidad porque está muy bien pensado, pero se me hizo denso.
En algunas partes me atrapaba y me leía 100 páginas de un tirón. En otras (la mayoría) me dormía a las 10 o 15 carillas. Por eso el avance se me hizo muuuy lento. Las mejores partes me parecieron las divagaciones sobre filosofía natural y monadología por parte de Leibniz y Fatio. Reconozco que el interés en la historia de la ciencia, y de este período en particular no son para todo el mundo, pero a mí me interesan especialmente; quizá por eso disfruté más el primer libro.
Es una pena porque el anterior libro de la trilogía me encantó y por supuesto que quiero saber cómo termina. Espero que repunte! Además tengo otro bodoque de Stephenson en la mesa de luz para leer a continuación... -
A necessary result of the con-fusion of Bonanza and The Juncto (the two component novels that comprise this volume) is that the narrative meanders back and forth between the dealings of erudite Eliza (in Europe) and daring Jack Shaftoe (pretty much everywhere else). Both stories are equally compelling but in totally different ways: the swashbuckling adventures of a maritime cabal of pirates and slaves couldn't be more different from the sensitive and precise financial, political and scientific intrigues of the contingent of Natural Philosophers. Unforgettable characters are forged, given rich stories, and sometimes discarded so many times that the reader can't help but get confused themselves at times, but it all contributes to the breadth and span of this Baroque epic. Impossibly the two stories begin to converge - around Phosphorous, of all things - setting the stage for the much anticipated final act!
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this review is for all 3 books, and i'll keep it short... Neal Stephenson is fascinating and erudite and well-educated and absolutely insane... this trilogy is just a not-so-subtle way to get people to read and learn history! hah! the fictional parts of the books are rather dull, but the walk through history was interesting... problem being i already ready history, as non-fiction, and these books aren't much from a fiction/fantasy/science fiction/historical fiction standpoint when the goings on of actual happenings are removed... for me they failed as fiction, and only get 2 stars instead of one because i do love history and that was what kept me reading... too much fact, not enough make-believe for me...
