The Secrets of the Chess Machine

by Anthea Bell (Translator), Anthea Bell (Translator), Robert Löhr (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2007

  $3.25

  In Vienna 1770, Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen unveils a strange and amazing invention, The Mechanical Turk, a sensational and unbeatable chess-playing automaton. But what the Habsburg court hails as the greatest innovation of the century is really nothing more than a brilliant illusion. The chess machine is secretly operated from inside by the Italian dwarf Tibor, a God-fearing social outcast whose chess-playing abilities and diminutive size make him the perfect accomplice in this grand hoax. Von Kempelen and his helpers tour his remarkable invention all around Europe to amaze and entertain the public, but despite many valiant attempts and close calls, no one is able to beat the extraordinary chess machine. The crowds all across Europe adore the Turk, and the success of Baron von Kempelen seems assured. But when a beautiful and seductive Countess dies under mysterious circumstances in the presence of the automaton, the Mechanical Turk falls under a cloud of suspicion, and the machine and its inventor become the target of espionage, persecution, and aristocratic intrigue. What is the dark secret behind this automaton and what strange powers does it hold? From the leaden dungeons of Venice to the imperial court in Vienna, from the palaces of the Pressburg nobility to the alleyways of the Jewish quarter, The Secrets of the Chess Machine is the breathtaking historical adventure, based on a true story, of a legendary invention.

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.25

  In Vienna in 1770, Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen unveils his astonishing invention: the Mechanical Turk, an unbeatable chess-playing machine. But von Kempelen is no mechanical genius. Rather, he's a conman, as Tibor, the dwarf locked inside the device, will attest. As the pair tour Europe and become involved in a host of picaresque adventures, barely keeping the secret as they beat all comers, they at last come unstuck when a beautiful countess dies in the presence of the Turk. Suddenly von Kempelen, Tibor and his Turk are the objects of suspicion and the targets of persecution and espionage. And that is before more unexplained deaths further complicate matters...