A Curious Narrative

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I'm currently revisiting a novel that I bought, secondhand, six years ago, but which got sidelined at some point, and I'm not sure why, as it's a compelling narrative told well, and it's got all the elements which I like: libraries, classification and the curious word of the curiosity; collected, shelved and cabinetted; cloistered, dark and musty rooms of books, shelves, spiral staircases and leather-topped desks. Most of all its central, inanimate but mechanical protagonist is a watch. To be specific, the watch: the Breguet 'Marie Antoinette', 'The Queen', 'The Grand Complication' [the English title of this book], which was stolen from the L.A. Mayer Institute For Islamic Art in 1983. Thought lost, this masterpiece of horology, completed in 1802, nine years after Marie Antoinette's death, and which features every possible watch function known at the time, comprises 802 individual components. It finally resurfaced in 2007, when the widow of the original thief of the watch, and the rest of the stolen collection, attempted to sell the piece, and was arrested for receiving as a result. In 2013, the timepiece was valued at US$30 million. The book - fittingly an ex-library edition which retains its institutional front matter - is "The Grand Complication" by Allen Kurzweil; which will get finished this time around, to be sure...

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