The Confusion

The Confusion

infobox Book |
name = The Confusion
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Neal Stephenson
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = The Baroque Cycle
genre = Historical novel
publisher = William Morrow
release_date = 2004
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 815 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-06-052386-7
preceded_by = Quicksilver
followed_by = The System of the World

"The Confusion" is a novel by Neal Stephenson. It is the second volume in "The Baroque Cycle".

"The Confusion" consists of two books, "Bonanza" and "The Juncto" which are "con-fused" together, so that one jumps back and forth between them as one reads through "The Confusion". This is the only volume of the Baroque Cycle that is so "confused"; the novels contained in the other two volumes are read in order (comment taken from the book).

The title has several other meanings:

*the cryptographic terms confusion and diffusion (several of the characters are involved in code-breaking)
*the metallurgic term confusion, for the process of mingling two metals into an alloy (referring to the efforts of several characters involved in refining gold)

In 2005, "The Confusion" won the Locus Award, together with The System of the World.

Main characters

*Eliza
*Bob Shaftoe
*Jack Shaftoe
*Daniel Waterhouse

Other characters

*Dappa, galley slave, Nigerian, sailor aboard "Minerva"
*Enoch Root
*Moseh de la Cruz, galley slave, Spanish Jew
*Vrej Esphahnian, galley slave, Armenian
*Mr. Foot, English galley slave, ex-privateer, ex-publican, ex-slave merchant
*Èdouard de Gex, Jesuit fanatic
*Gabriel Goto, galley slave, Jesuit priest from Japan
*Lothar von Hacklheber, German banker obsessed with alchemy
*Jeronimo, galley slave, a high-born Spaniard with Tourette syndrome
*Nyazi, galley slave, camel-trader of the Upper Nile
*Otto van Hoek, galley slave, pirate-hating Dutch captain of the "Minerva"
*Yevgeny the Raskolnik, galley slave, Russian whaler
*Bonaventure Rossignol, French cryptologist
*Danny Shaftoe, son of Jack Shaftoe
*Jimmy Shaftoe, son of Jack Shaftoe
*Nasr al-Ghurab, rais (commander) of the galleot

Editions

* ISBN 0-06-052386-7: First hardcover edition, released April, 2004.
* ISBN 0-06-073335-7: Paperback edition.

External links

* [http://www.metaweb.com/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=Stephenson:Neal:The_Confusion Metaweb intermediate page]
* [http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,63050,00.html Wired article]
* [http://www.salon.com/books/int/2004/04/21/stephenson/index_np.html Salon article]


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