Book Review: The Turk by Tom Standage

On an autumn day in 1769, a Hungarian nobleman named Wolfgang von Kempelen attended a conjuring show at the court of Maria Theresa, empress of Austria-Hungary. So unimpressed was Kempelen by the performance that he declared he could do better himself. Maria Theresa held him to his word and gave him six months to prepare a show of his own. Kempelen did not disappoint; he returned to the court the following spring with a mechanical man, fashioned from wood, powered by clockwork, dressed in a stylish Turkish costume—and capable of playing chess.

The Turk, as this contraption became known, was an instant success, and Tom Standage’s book chronicles its illustrious career in Europe and America over the next eighty five years.

Read Andrew Lasda's review of The Turk by Tom Standage.