Extravagance: A Novel [Hardcover]

Gary Krist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2002

William Tobias Merrick, an energetic young man from the provinces, travels to the big city in a time of great optimism and ferment, hoping to make his mark on a frenzied, money-crazed society obsessed with the promise of new technologies.

The city in question is London in the 1690s; but it is also New York in the 1990s. The new technologies are diving bells, pneumatic winches, and "sucking-worm" drainage engines; but they are also wireless telecommunication devices, patented biotechnology processes, and revolutionary electronic Internet routers. Only the sense of unlimited possibility remains the same throughout.

Unfolding simultaneously in two distant--but remarkably similar--periods of history, Extravagance is a comic, pictaresque novel of financial mania, the story of a world gripped by a terminal case of irrational exuberance. Navigating the perils of both eras is a single cast of characters: Will himself, a young man on the make, eager to do whatever it takes to make his fortune; Will's uncle (and sponsor) Gilbert Hawking, a shrewd businessman with one foot in the Old Economy and one in the New; Benjamin Fletcher, the developer of a pioneering new technology destined to set the world on fire; and Theodore Witherspoon, the cheerfully unscrupulous wizard of the financial markets who promises to make them all wealthy beyond their dreams.

Meanwhile, Will's aspirations are complicated by his pursuit of Ben Fletcher's sister, Eliza, the gorgeous and disconcertingly aggressive woman who is as desirable as she is elusive. Can Will succeed in his efforts to win both Eliza and the fortune that her brother's new technology seems likely to bring him? And can he make it all happen before the general euphoria of the age reaches its inevitable climax?

Extravagance is a uniquely conceived work of high comic entertainment -- an ultra-smart time machine of a novel that proves that both love and greed are timeless.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Krist (Chaos Theory; Bad Chemistry) uses the analogous market excesses of the 1690s and the 1990s as dual, parallel settings for a young mans journey up the business ladder as he tries to make his fortune through the stock market. The protagonist of this syncopated narrative is Will Merrick, a precocious young man who moves to the city to try to fulfill his rags-to-riches dreams: in 17th-century London he is a stock jobber whose task is to try to capitalize on such new technologies as winches and drainage engines, and on Wall Street during the frenetic dot-com days of the late 1990s he is a financial spy in a high-stakes IPO deal. While he makes his way through the two labyrinthine monetary worlds, a romantic subplot finds Merrick wooing (in both timelines) the rich, strong-willed and mischievous Eliza Fletcher, who leads him through a series of on-again, off-again dates and interludes that cause Merrick to question his identity as a clever rich guy on the make. Krist pulls off an impressive feat with his careful plotting as Merrick bounces back and forth between eras, opportunities and moral quandaries; unfortunately, the London in the 1690s part of the narrative fades as the book progresses, and the love affair is competent but rarely compelling. Nonetheless, Krists ambition is laudable, and the novel is a worthwhile read, especially when he gets his complex narrative to click on all cylinders.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Krist (Chaos Theory) has written a morality tale about unrestrained market speculation and a lust for monetary gain by any means. Depicted is the coming of age of Will Merrick on Wall Street at the dawn of the market crash of the 21st century and simultaneously during a similar market boom and crash during the final decade of the 17th century on London's Exchange Alley. With no particular interests beyond making money, Merrick does not care about the moral or ethical ambiguities of his methods. But greed is causing him to flounder in his personal life, and even before losing his shirt in the market, he begins to reform. Krist seamlessly moves the action from one century to the other, belying the novel's oft-repeated sentiment that the lessons of history are for the foolish. Krist provides the reader with a painless lesson that entertains as well as informs and perhaps contributes to the reader's sense of indignation. Recommended for all libraries with contemporary fiction collections. Rebecca Stuhr, Grinnell Coll. Libs., IA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (September 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767913302
• ISBN-13: 978-0767913300
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,506,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, and more, October 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Extravagance: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a really excellent novel--a page-turner--but a lot more than that. It's an exploration of how human nature created the financial bubble that just burst. Krist sets the novel on two separate but parallel tracks--Wall Street at the end of the 20th century and London at the end of the 17th century, when stocks were fairly new and exotic things. Krist has done his homework; the historical sections are authentic, making you feel as if you've been transported to another world. But, however different the language and customs of 1690s Londoners from 1990s New Yorkers, the action in both places revolves around human universals: ambition, love, temptation, and certainly greed. That's why Krist can weave the two stories into a single narrative that gains momentum as it proceeds. This is a high-wire act, and he pulls it off.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What's the point?, August 12, 2004

By 

Gail Moore "avid reader" (vancouver canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extravagance: A Novel (Paperback)

Quoting from the blurb on its back cover, Extravagance is a novel of "financial mania" and is set in two time periods - London in the 1690's and New York in the 1990's. It is a single story, that of William Merrick, an ambitious young man. who comes to stay with his uncle in the big city, but moves from one time period to another, for example he could be having lunch with his uncle in 17th century England, leave and step into a cab in New York 20th century. The same characters are having parallel lives and interactions with each other in both time periods. This simply happens and is never explained to the reader, are they time travelers, a group reincarnation, a dream?????? It seems the only reason we are constantly shifted back and forth is to demonstrate the similarities in the two periods with regard to stock trading and sudden wealth. Though the book's concept is intriguing and includes some clever and witty writing the actual plot simply did not hold my attention. The cliche characters are totally one dimensional, shallow, greedy and predictable in every way.

Perhaps OK for someone who enjoys historical fiction about money, particularly stock market money.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Way underrated, February 6, 2004

By 

Bartleby Scrivener (Omaha, NE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Extravagance: A Novel (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this daring comparison between two economic booms and the moral struggles straddling them both. An enoyable undertaking from first to last.