From the author of Pfitz and Music, In a Foreign Language, here is a novel of great intelligence and imagination

D'Alembert's Principle is a fascinating historical triptych about memory and reason set in the rich and lavish world of eighteenth-century Europe. In Crumey's novel, a celebrated scientist, D'Alembert, looks back on his life, the splendor of the Paris salons, and his unrequited love for the woman who spent years deceiving him. Meanwhile, an exiled Jacobite dreams of journeying to the planets, and in a prison cell two unlikely captives discuss love, language and fate.

Like the movements of an elegant musical suite, these three interlocking stories form an allegory of human knowledge, grand in scope and magnificently entertaining. Deft, teasing, and sometimes deeply moving, this remarkable novel perfectly captures the spirit of a lost age.