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| Plot Summary of The Confusion |
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"
Morrow, Apr 2004, 27.95, 815 pp.
ISBN: 0060523867
In 1689 off the Barbary Coast, a slightly insane Jack Shaftoe is one of a crew of slaves rowing a pirate's ship when a plan to escape surface. The ten pull off their stunt and take with them some Spanish loot that turns out to be special gold that alchemists mixed with“divine” qualities.
At the same time that the “King of the Vagabonds” and cohorts make their escape with the gold, the woman he once rescued from a harem, Eliza, looks forward to one day living peacefully raising her child while also planning to retaliate against the rogue who “sold” her to the Ottomans. However sailing the Mediterranean can prove dangerous and Eliza is too skilled an operator for the French to allow her to rusticate or urbanize in London. Instead she is drafted to help the Sun King and crafts an intricate deal to obtain money so that the French-Irish army can invade England.
THE CONFUSION is actually two Baroque tales interwoven (literally as the perspective predominantly shifts between Eliza and Jack and to a lesser degree the Juncto (Leibniz, Newton, etc.). The twin story lines are very amusing action-adventure tales in which both are superb, but Jack's swashbuckling is incredible. There is no doubt that this epic historical action thriller provides a wonderful witty winner as Neal Stephenson paints a masterly look back as he did in QUICKSILVER.
Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
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"Jack Shaftoe was an Algerian galley slave, but together with several other smart slaves he goes in on a plan on behalf of more powerful interests to steal Spanish silver being shipped from the New World . . . but the slaves intend to keep it for themselves. The "silver" turns out to be gold that financiers and alchemists believe possesses supernatural qualities.
Meanwhile, in France, Eliza has lost her fortune and schemes to make another one as well as to kill the French noble who raped her and sold her and her mother into slavery more than a decade before. France and England continue to flirt with all-out war. This is the second volume of Stephenson's Baroque trilogy. Although many of the historical characters who turned up in Quicksilver (Newton, Leibniz, King Louis XIV, and so on) appear in this book, too, and there's plenty of discussion of macro-economics and the Enlightenment shift from alchemy to harder sciences, more of the plot centers on Eliza and Jack alone. The time period is smaller than that covered by the first book (1696-1702), but geographically The Confusion ranges much farther: from England, France, and Germany to Algeria, Egypt, quite a bit in India, and stops in Japan and Mexico. At 815 pages, it's shorter than the first book, and reads faster. "
David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Confusion |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- thoughtful
Time/era of story
- 17th century
Life of a profession:
- prince/nobleman/king/queen
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story
Yes
Exploring into the wild
Yes
kind of story
- searching for treasure
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- spy
- wealthy
Age:
- 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
- French
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- an organization
Profession/status:
- business executive
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 4 ()
Europe
Yes
European country:
- France
Asia/Pacific
Yes
Asian country:
- India
Ice Caps/Sea?
Yes
Where?
- Ocean
Misc setting
- prison
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- touching of anatomy
- impregnation/reproduction
- actual description of hetero sex
Unusual Style:
- a lot of stream of consciousness
- No single main character?
Amount of dialog
- significantly more dialog than descript
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Neal Stephenson Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 David Loftus
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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