- 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 byNeal 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 theLocus 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-pub lican, ex-slave merchant
*Èdouard de Gex ,Jesuit fanatic
*Gabriel Goto , galley slave, Jesuit priest from Japan
*Lothar von Hacklheber , German banker obsessed withalchemy
*Jeronimo, galley slave, a high-born Spaniard withTourette 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 thegalleot 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]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.