The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra…

by Neal Stephenson

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Canonical Title

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Original publication date

People/Characters

John Percival Hackworth

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(show all 8 items)

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Awards and honors

Hugo (Novel, 1996)

Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist (1996)

John W. Campbell Memorial Award Finalist (1996)

Nebula Nominee (Novel, 1996)

Prometheus Award Shortlist (1996)

(show all 6 items)

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

The bells of St. Mark's were ringing changes up on the mountain when Bud skated over to the mod parlor to upgrade his skull gun.

Quotations

The difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people--and this is true whether or not they are well-educated--is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations--in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward.

It is upon moral qualities that a society is ultimately founded. All the prosperity and technological sophistication in the world is of no use without that foundation.

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Book description

Book descriptions

Amazon.com (ISBN 0553380966, Paperback)

John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.

(retrieved from Amazon Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:42:19 -0400)

(see all 3 descriptions)