Cox: Or the Course of Time - Couverture rigide

Ransmayr, Christoph

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0857427369 ISBN 13 : 9780857427366

Editeur : Seagull Books London Ltd, 2021

Synopsis

Richly imagined and recounted in vivid prose of extraordinary beauty, this book is a stunning illustration of Ransmayr's talent for imbuing a captivating tale with intense metaphorical, indeed metaphysical force.

The world's most powerful man, Qiánlóng, emperor of China, invites the famous eighteenth-century clockmaker Alister Cox to his court in Beijing. There, in the heart of the Forbidden City, the Englishman and his assistants are to build machines that mark the passing of time as a child or a condemned man might experience it and that capture the many shades of happiness, suffering, love, and loss that come with that passing.

Mystified by the rituals of a rigidly hierarchical society dominated by an unimaginably wealthy, god-like ruler, Cox musters all his expertise and ingenuity to satisfy the emperor's desires. Finally, Qiánlóng, also known by the moniker Lord of Time, requests the construction of a clock capable of measuring eternity--a perpetuum mobile. Seizing this chance to realize a long-held dream and honor the memory of his late beloved daughter, yet conscious of the impossibility of his task, Cox sets to work. As the court is suspended in a never-ending summer, festering with evil gossip about the monster these foreigners are creating, the Englishmen wonder if they will ever escape from their gilded cage. More than a meeting of two men, one isolated by power, the other by grief, this is an exploration of mortality and a virtuoso demonstration that storytelling alone can truly conquer time.

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

Christoph Ransmayr is an Austrian author whose books have been translated into more than thirty languages. His prodigious travels provided the material for Atlas of an Anxious Man, and his novel The Flying Mountain, both published by Seagull Books.

Simon Pare is a translator from French and German living near Zurich.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Seagull Books London Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2021
• ISBN 10: 0857427369
• ISBN 13: 9780857427366
• Reliure: Relié
• Langue: anglais
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible