Free City by Eric Darton

Free City by Eric Darton

An inventor living at the beginning of the Enlightenment keeps journals reflecting on everything from his inventive lovemaking to his discovery of the first binary code, caffeine stimulation, the insanity defense, and the memory of birds. First published in 1996 to international acclaim, Eric Darton’s Free City is the fictional journal of L., a seventeenth-century inventor caught in a precarious love triangle, even as his beloved northern European port town teeters on the brink of catastrophe. In a tale laced with bawdy humor and elements of the fantastical, L. must balance the demands of his patron—a rapacious entrepreneur—against those of his sorceress lover. As L. attempts to avert calamity, he finds himself joined by the most unlikely of allies. Weaving together historical, political and absurdist elements, Free City resonates more profoundly today than ever.

"Witty and ingenious" —Michael Harris, Los Angeles Times

"Darton's seductive fable is a stylistic tour de force, a dazzling parable about the birth of the modern age with its terrors and promise. It unfolds as the diary of a Leonardo-like inventor, scientist, surgeon, memory expert and sexual acrobat whose inventions include explosives, anesthetics, a military airship and humanlike automata . . . reminiscent of Italo Calvino's work in its dashing mingling of history and fantasy." —Publishers Weekly

"A peculiar novel written in diary form, putatively by a famous doctor-inventor in a northern European city at the beginning of the Enlightenment. . . . readers . . . will enjoy the sheer inventiveness of the faux period language and the intellectual challenges of the narrative." —Booklist

"Darton's first novel, a curious little dip into history and fantasy, is about the fall of a European city in the Enlightenment period—told through the diary of an aging scientist . . . Tongue-in-cheek historical tale that's intelligent, learned, and of good cheer . . ." —Kirkus Reviews

Eric Darton was born in New York City in 1950. His books include Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York’s World Trade Center (Basic Books, 1999, 2011), and Free City, a novel. He teaches at Global College of Long Island University, Harry Van Arsdale Center for Labor Studies (Empire State College) and New York University. Previously, he has been an editor of Conjunctions, American Letters & Commentary and Frigatezine.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781628973570
ISBN 10	1628973579
Title	Free City
Author	Eric Darton
Series	American Literature
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Dalkey Archive Press
Year published	2020-11-19
Number of pages	176
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.