A Scientific Romance: A Novel - Softcover

Wright, Ronald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312199996 ISBN 13: 9780312199999

Publisher: Picador, 1999

Synopsis

A brilliantly imagined debut novel by distinguished travel writer Ronald Wright, about one man's journey into the next millenium.

About this title

Review

In London at the turn of the 20th century, H. G. Wells's time machine mysteriously appears--empty--in a squatter's flat. Whence did it come, and for what purpose was it sent? The answers to these questions--though not to an even greater mystery connected with the machine's appearance--are contained in a letter written by Wells on May 2, 1946, which falls into the hands of one David Lambert on the eve of the millennium. Lambert, an industrial archeologist, reads the letter foretelling the arrival of the machine and, half convinced the whole thing is a hoax, goes to the address Wells provides, where, at the appointed hour, the time machine materializes. Thus begins Ronald Wright's fine and fantastical novel A Scientific Romance.

Romance can refer to an affair of the heart; it can also describe a heroic tale of extraordinary events. In A Scientific Romance, Wright plays on both possible meanings as he weaves a tragic story of betrayal and lost love into a larger narrative of time travel. Lambert, having lost the woman he loved, is reckless enough to test Wells's machine himself, catapulting 500 years into the future, where he finds London--indeed, all of England--a deserted, semitropical landscape. As David explores the future, he also sifts through his own past, creating in this Möbius strip of time and relationship a chilling cautionary tale about the limits of science and human ambition.

From the Publisher

"An elegant novel...gripping and lyrical; you struggle to slow down but find yourself rushing forward." --New Yorker

"Powerful...cunningly fashioned...It's flair for description can be positively Dickensian...A profound meditation on the nature of time." --John Vernon, The New York Times Book Review

"Witty, ambitious and thoughtful...an original and memorable first novel." --San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

"Wright's vision of a lushly catastrophic future is both mesmerizing and grimly plausible, establishing him as a distinguished new voice." --Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times

"This is a boldly imagined novel that reveals in vivid description and a lean, muscular prose...a class act." --Dan Cryer, Newsday

"Extraordinary...a disturbing and very moving book...a work of great beauty built on a nightmare." --Anthony Miller, Boston Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312199996
• ISBN 13: 9780312199999
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352