The Luminaries / Светила (by Eleanor Catton, 2013) - аудиокнига на английском

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton for Pop, who sees the stars and Jude, who hears their music NOTE TO THE READER The stellar and planetary positions in this book have been determined astronomically. This is to say that we acknowledge the celestial phenomenon known as precession, by which motion the vernal equinox, the astrological equivalent of the Greenwich meridian, has come to shift. The vernal equinox (autumnal in southern latitudes) formerly occurred while the Sun was in the constellation of Aries, the first sign. It now occurs while the Sun is in Pisces, the twelfth. Consequently, and as readers of this book will note, each zodiacal sign ‘occurs’ approximately one month later than popular information would have it. We mean no disrespect to popular information by this correction; we do observe, however, that the above error is held in defiance of the material fact of our nineteenth-century firmament; and we dare to conjecture, further, that such a conviction might be called Piscean in its quality—emblematic, indeed, of persons born during the Age of Pisces, an age of mirrors, tenacity, instinct, twinship, and hidden things. We are contented by this notion. It further affirms our faith in the vast and knowing influence of the infinite sky. CHARACTER CHART STELLAR: Te Rau Tauwhare, a greenstone hunter Charlie Frost, a banker Benjamin L?wenthal, a newspaperman Edgar Clinch, an hotelier Dick Mannering, a goldfields magnate Quee Long, a goldsmith Harald Nilssen, a commission merchant Joseph Pritchard, a chemist Thomas Balfour, a shipping agent Aubert Gascoigne, a justice’s clerk Sook Yongsheng, a hatter Cowell Devlin, a chaplain PLANETARY: Walter Moody Lydia (Wells) Carver, n?e Greenway Francis Carver Alistair Lauderback George Shepard Anna Wetherell Emery Staines TERRA FIRMA: Crosbie Wells RELATED HOUSE: The Wells Cottage (Arahura Valley) The Reserve Bank (Revell-street) The West Coast Times Office (Weld-street) The Gridiron Hotel (Revell-street) The Aurora Goldmine (Kaniere) ‘Chinatown Forge’ (Kaniere) Nilssen