A Case of Curiosities

This tale of an ambitious inventor in France as the Revolution looms is “brilliantly playful . . . full of lore and lewdness” ( Chicago Tribune ). “A portrait of a young mechanical genius in 18th-century France, delivered along with a gallimaufry of odd and intriguing facts and a rich, lusty picture of society in that time and place.” — Publishers Weekly   In France, on the eve of the Revolution, a young man named Claude Page sets out to become the most ingenious and dar