The Smithsonian Institution: A Novel - Couverture souple

Vidal, Gore

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0156006480 ISBN 13 : 9780156006484

Editeur : Houghton Mifflin, 2009

Synopsis

Good Friday, 1939, and T., a sixteen-year-old schoolboy, arrives at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. The museum is closed, but T. manages to slip in, and it would appear that somehow, he is expected. An old man, Bentsen, shows him around, and T. realises that all is not as it seems. As he goes to examine a Native American exhibit, he is drawn magically into the nineteenth-century world of a reservation of Sioux Indians. They like what they see of T. and immediately get the pot boiling. T. is forced to take refuge in the tent of a young Squaw. They become lovers, and she helps him to escape back to the safety of the Smithsonian. Back with Bentsen, T. explores the Smithsonian further and begins to fathom the mysteries of time travel. The Smithsonian scientists have discovered how to get back to the past, but still don't know how to travel to the future. T. puts his brilliant mathematical brain to the problem. However, given a glimpse into the future, T. sees his own untimely death, and becomes determined to prevent the outbreak of WWII...

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

It's 1939, and a teenage math genius is mysteriously summoned to the Smithsonian Institution, where a crash program to develop the atomic bomb is being conducted in the basement. The boy turns out to hold the key to both the secrets of nuclear fission and breakthroughs in the time continuum. As he brainstorms with Robert Oppenheimer, he catches a glimpse of the coming war and becomes determined to ward off the cataclysm. In a race against time-and surrounded by figures from American history past and present, including Albert Einstein, Grover Cleveland, and Abraham Lincoln-he battles to save not just himself, but humanity. Gore Vidal has written some of the finest and most inventive novels in modern times. Readers of such bestsellers as Burr, Lincoln, Duluth, and 1876 will revel in this, his latest foray into the American scene. A brilliant and vividly imaginative tale about some of the key events of the twentieth century, The Smithsonian Institution is a dramatic masterwork of comedy and allusion.

Revue de presse :

"Vidal is in fine form here. The Smithsonian Institution, perhaps because it frees him from having to write realistically, is a masterpiece of frenzied invention.-Chicago Tribune "Phantasmagoric."-The New York Times
"A high-spirited tour of American history, romance and Washington politics interpreted by Vidal's unique brand of social commentary. The Smithsonian Institution wins the literary lion a small victory in his running battle with Washington's pomposity by proving that humor is mightier than the sword."-The Denver Post

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Houghton Mifflin
• Date d'édition: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0156006480
• ISBN 13: 9780156006484
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 272