NEW YORK TIMES
BESTSELLER
Graham Moore Author of The Sherlockian |
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The Last Days
of
Night A NOVEL |
| 故事描寫愛迪生與西屋電氣創始人喬治．威斯汀豪斯，兩者關於電燈專利的歷史之爭，以電流爭議為背景，儘管愛迪生已贏得專利權，但仍對僅存的對手威斯汀豪斯，以高達一億美元的天文數字對之興訟。為了自保，威斯汀豪斯祭出奇招，大膽聘請年僅廿六歲、甫自哥倫比亞法學院畢業且毫無實戰經驗的年輕律師——保羅．克拉瓦斯。而這場關乎人類光明的世紀對決，甚至牽涉天才發明家特斯拉，以及歌劇女伶安尼絲．杭廷頓於其中。對這場掌控人類光明感興趣的讀者，切勿錯過這本令人拍案驚奇的歷史小說。 NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE
YEAR BY
THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER New York, 1888. The miracle of electric light is in its infancy. Thomas Edison has won the race to the patent office and is suing his only remaining rival, George Westinghouse, for the unheard-of sum of one billion dollars. To defend himself, Westinghouse makes a surprising choice in his attorney: He hires a young, untested twenty-six-year-old fresh out of Columbia Law School named Paul Cravath. The task facing Cravath is daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal, including the backing of J.P. Morgan himself. Yet Cravath shares with his famous opponent a compulsion to win at all costs. In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he＇ll find that no one is quite who they seem. “A satisfying romp . . . Takes place against a backdrop rich with period detail . . . Works wonderfully as an entertainment . . . As it charges forward, the novel leaves no dot unconnected.” —Noah Hawley, The New York Times Book
Review
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People don＇t know what they want until you show it to them. —Steve Jobs
May 11, 1888 On the day that he would first meet Thomas Edison, Paul watched a man burn alive in the sky above Broadway. The immolation occurred late on a Friday morning. The lunchtime bustle was picking up as Paul descended from his office building onto the crowded street. He cut an imposing figure against the flow of pedestrians: six feet four inches, broad shouldered, cleanshaven, clothed in the matching black coat, vest, and long tie that was to be expected of New York＇s young professional men. His hair, perfectly parted on the left, had just begun to recede into a gentle widow＇s peak. He looked older than his twenty-six years. As Paul joined the throng along Broadway, he briefly noticed a young man in a Western Union uniform standing on a ladder. The workman was fiddling with electrical wires, the thick black cables that had recently begun to streak the skies of the city. They crisscrossed the thinner, older telegraph wires, and the spring winds had gusted them into a knotty bundle. The Western Union man was attempting to untangle the two sets of wires. He looked like a child flummoxed by enormous shoelaces. Paul＇s mind was on coffee. He was still new to the financial district, new to his law firm＇s offices on the third floor of 346 Broadway. He hadn＇t determined which of the local coffeehouses he preferred. There was the one to the north, along Walker. And the slower-serving but more fashionable one, on Baxter, with the rooster on the door. Paul was tired. The air felt good against his cheeks. He hadn＇t been outside yet that day. He＇d slept in his office the night before. When he saw the first spark, he didn＇t immediately realize what was happening. The workman grabbed hold of a wire and tugged. Paul heard a pop—just a quick, strange pop—as the man shuddered. Paul would later remember seeing a flash, even if at the time he wasn＇t sure what it was. The workman reached out for support, grasping another wire with his free hand. This, Paul would come to understand, was the man＇s mistake. He＇d created a connection. He＇d become a live conductor. And then both of the workman＇s arms jolted with orange sparks. There had to be two hundred people crowding the street that morning, and every head seemed to turn at the same time. Financiers parading in their wide-brimmed top hats; stock traders＇ assistants sprinting down to Wall Street clutching secret messages; social secretaries in teal skirts and sharp matching jackets; accountants out hunting for sandwiches; ladies in Doucet dresses visiting from Washington Square; local politicians eager for their duck lunches; a fleet of horses dragging thick-wheeled cabs over the uneven cobblestones. Broadway was the artery that fueled lower Manhattan. A wealth heretofore unknown on the face of the earth was burbling up from beneath these very streets. In the morning＇s paper Paul had read that John Jacob Astor had just become officially richer than the Queen of England. All eyes fixed on the man in the air. A blue flame shot from his mouth. The flame set fire to his hair. His clothes burned off instantly. He fell forward, his arms still wrapped around the wires. His feet dangled against the ladder. His body assumed the position of Jesus upon the cross. The blue flame fired through his mouth and melted the skin from his bones. No one had screamed yet. Paul still wasn＇t even sure what he was watching. He had seen violence before. He＇d grown up on a Tennessee farm. Death and the dying were unspectacular sights along the Cumberland River. But he＇d never seen anything like this. －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－- Excerpt
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| ■葛拉罕．摩爾／Graham Moore Graham Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian and the Academy Award–winning screenwriter for The Imitation Game, which also won a Writers Guild of America Award for best adapted screenplay. Moore was born in Chicago, received a B.A. in religious history from Columbia University in 2003, and now lives in Los Angeles. |
作者：葛拉罕．摩爾／Graham Moore 版本：Reprint Edition 規格：平裝／Paperback，13.1 x 20.3 x 2.1 cm，384頁 出版商：Random House Trade Paperbacks 出版日期：2017年05月23日 語言：英文 ISBN-15：978-0-8129-8892-5 新書。 Condition: New. 給子今夕，明日午時俟子於西市波斯邸，慎無後期。 你所隱藏的秘密 The Secrets You Hide 凱特赫姆 Kate Helm ★消費滿額可享免運優惠★
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