On September 15, 1802, the English brig Mentor sailed from Piraeus, its hold filled with the "Elgin Marbles"--the Classical Greek sculptures that Lord Elgin, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, had prised from the Parthenon in Athens. The ship ...
A short novel of the tragically brief pre-history of steam engines and coffee in renaissance Venice.
"A fine, funny trans-historical adventure, so well-furnished and well-wrought it seems more true than the more boring truth. Read it with a dou...