Neal Stephenson
The Confusion
To Maurine
THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE TO BE THANKED
for their help in the creation of the Baroque Cycle of which this book, The Confusion, is the second volume. Accordingly, please see the acknowledgments in Quicksilver, Volume One of the Baroque Cycle.
THE BAROQUE CYCLE
THIS VOLUME CONTAINS two novels, Bonanza and Juncto, that take place concurrently during the span 1689-1702. Rather than present one, then the other (which would force the reader to jump back to 1689 in mid-volume), I have interleaved sections of one with sections of the other so that the two stories move forward in synchrony. It is hoped that being thus con-fused shall render them the less confusing to the Reader.
When at the first I took my pen in hand,
Thus for to write, I did not understand
That I at all should make a little book
In such a mode; nay, I had undertook
To make another, which when almost done,
Before I was aware, I this begun.
–JOHN BUNYAN,The Pilgrim’s Progress,
THE AUTHOR’S APOLOGY FOR HIS BOOK
Contents
The Dunkerque Residence of the Marquis and the Marquise d’Ozoir
Throne Room of the Pasha, the Kasba, Algiers
Dunkerque Residence of the d’Ozoirs
Letter from Daniel Waterhouse to Eliza
Schlo? Wolfenbuttel, Lower Saxony
Chateau d’Arcachon, St.-Malo, France
Eliza to Lothar von Hacklheber
Eliza to King William III of England
Eliza to Monsieur le Chevalier d’Erquy
Cafe Esphahan, Rue de l’Orangerie, Versailles
Roger Comstock, Marquis of Ravenscar, to Eliza
Eliza to the Marquis of Ravenscar
Cabin of Meteore, off Cherbourg, France
The Surat-Broach Road, Hindoostan
Mrs. Bligh’s Coffee-house, London
Bonaventure Rossignol to Eliza
Southern Fringes of the Mogul Empire
Winter Quarters of the King’s Own Black Torrent Guards Near Namur
A House Overlooking the Meuse Valley