The Chess Machine (2005)

I bought the book based on the cover alone and never realised that it's by a german author. I hadn't heard of kempelen either. The story itself was interesting, but i missed kempelen's motive for deceiving people so thoroughly although he was a scientist, and what drove him to kill.

Robert Löhr's The Chess Machine (translated from the German by Andrea Bell and published by Penguin in 2007) is a fictionalized version of the story of the Mechanical Turk, a historical hoax produced by Wolfgang von Kempelen and exhibited around Europe in the final decades of the 18th century (and extant until 1854, when it was destroyed in a Philadelphia fire). While we don't know too much at all about the original operator of the Turk, Löhr has given us a character in the person of Tibor, an Italian dwarf plucked from jail by Kempelen and effectively held hostage as the Turk's inner workings.

Tibor, von Kempelen, and the erstwhile assistant Jakob soon discover that their secret is going to be a tough one to keep hidden, and that the steps they have to take to keep the Turk in operation might be troubling ones.

I enjoyed this book; the story held my interest, the writing was excellent, and the way Löhr manages to turn the narrative itself into a very complicated chess match was very well done.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2010/10/book-review-chess-machine.html ( )

*Inventing Madness*

Like the device this story is about, this book is like an intricate mechanism that has cogwheels turning the pages, springs to keep the reader in the lurch, pullies that tug the reader along without pause. It has many gears for continuous movement from start to finish. The Chess Machine offers the reader a lighthearted fun frolic through Europe in the late 1700s as we learn the story that is based on the true life invention of the Mechanical Turk. The Turk was an automaton chess playing machine invented by Wolfgang Kempelen who created this mechanical marvel and took Europe by storm taking it on the road to entertain the wealthy and the royal. This is a creative novel with a plot and story different than the norm and offers the reader many hours of pure reading enjoyment. We have great characters, a creative story, good writing and many well thought out side plots that twist and turn. There are few slow spots but basically the story moves along at a good pace, never predictable and has a few surprises that come at you rather sudden to leave you stunned. There is great character development for a few of the key players and the author blends sincere human emotions with constant conflicting morals and values to allow them to come alive on paper. I thoroughly enjoyed the ingenuity of this novel and felt it a breath of fresh air to read something out of the ordinary. This is a very visual story, very colorful with vivid historical costumed scenes and lavish backdrops. Because of that I think it would make a splendid film as well. This is truly a wonderful debut novel and I eagerly await another book from the author. ( )

In the late 18th century, a fabulous new scientific oddity was the toast of Europe. The Turk, a chess-playing automaton built by Wolfgang von Kempelen, was defeating chess masters across Europe. It was a true marvel of the times -- a machine, built after the fashion of a Turkish ruler, that was capable of thought. Built for the amusement of Empress Maria Theresa of Hungary, it played chess, the game of kings, against rulers and commoners alike. In 1808, it played its most famous foe, Napoleon Bonaparte. The Turk was eventually retired, sold, and was destroyed in a fire at Peale's Chinese Museum in Philadelphia in 1854. But what was the secret behind this machine that dazzled royalty and astounded the court machinicians? Robert Lohr devises a tale for The Turk full of intrigue and heartbreak in his novel, The Chess Machine.

My full review is here.

Interesting adaptation of the true story of Wolfgang von Kempelen's chess playing automaton. It intertwines real people with fictional characters such as Tibor, the Italian dwarf who is the first brains of the machine. The historical story was interesting but the characters and how they interact are what makes the story.
This was an audiobook. The narrator was clear and interesting. The story follows two time tracks and at times I found myself having to reorient myself to which track we were on. Still all in all very interesting. ( )