Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson - Bog

This is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and courageous puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the great minds of the Baroque Age. It is a chronicle of the near-legendary exploits of Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer, known to all as the King of the Vagabonds, as he risks life and limb for fortune and love while slowly going mad from the pox. And it is the story of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals as she reinvents a contentious continent through the newborn power of international finance.