From the author of Pfitz and Music, In a Foreign Language, here is a novel of great intelligence and imagination
D'Alembert's Principle is a fascinating historical triptych about memory and reason set in the rich and lavish world of eighteenth-century Europe. In Crumey's novel, a celebrated scientist, D'Alembert, looks back on his life, the splendor of the Paris salons, and his unrequited love for the woman who spent years deceiving him. Meanwhile, an exiled Jacobite dreams of journeying to the planets, and in a prison cell two unlikely captives discuss love, language and fate.
Like the movements of an elegant musical suite, these three interlocking stories form an allegory of human knowledge, grand in scope and magnificently entertaining. Deft, teasing, and sometimes deeply moving, this remarkable novel perfectly captures the spirit of a lost age.
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Review:
"Swift who relished every storyteller's ruse and mocked the pomp of scholarship would have enjoyed the Scottish writer Andrew Crumey." Boyd Tonkin in The New Stateman
" D'Alembert's Principle is certainly another beautifully composed work which lets you glide through the story but afterwards leaves you asking questions, looking for connections and puzzling, quite happily, for hours." Rosemary Goring in Scotland on Sunday
"Crumey is one of my three or four favourite modern writers - a wise, funny, alert and original novelist who has never disappointed." Jonathan Coe
About the Author:
Andrew Crumey studied Theoretical Physics and Mathematics at St. Andrews University and Imperial College, and did postdoctoral research at Leeds University on nonlinear dynamics. He received Scotland's Saltire Prize for Best First Novel for Music, In a Foreign Language. He lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherPicador USA
- Publication date1998
- ISBN 10 0312195680
- ISBN 13 9780312195687
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages203
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