In early eighteenth-century Lisbon, Baltasar, a soldier who has lost his left hand in battle, falls in love with Blimunda, a young girl with visionary powers. From the day that he follows her home from the auto-da-fe where women are burned at the stake, the two are bound body and soul by love of an unassailable strength. A third party shares their supper that evening: Padre Bartolomeu Lourenco, whose fantasy is to invent a flying machine. As the Crown and the Church clash, they purse his impossible, not to mention heretical ...
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In early eighteenth-century Lisbon, Baltasar, a soldier who has lost his left hand in battle, falls in love with Blimunda, a young girl with visionary powers. From the day that he follows her home from the auto-da-fe where women are burned at the stake, the two are bound body and soul by love of an unassailable strength. A third party shares their supper that evening: Padre Bartolomeu Lourenco, whose fantasy is to invent a flying machine. As the Crown and the Church clash, they purse his impossible, not to mention heretical, dream of flight.
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Good. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 368 p. May show signs of wear, highlighting, writing, and previous use. This item may be a former library book with typical markings. No guarantee on products that contain supplements Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Twenty-five year bookseller with shipments to over fifty million happy customers.
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Fine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 368 p. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Fine. B-format paperback. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Good. Minimal signs of wear. Corners and cover may show wear. May contain highlighting and or writing. May be missing dust jacket. May not include supplemental materials. May be a former library book.
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UsedVeryGood. Size: 5x0x8; Very Good condition. Crisp pages. Clean cover and pages. Book shows minimal shelf wear. No highlighting/marking. Not Satisfied? Contact us to get a refund.
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Very Good. Very Good condition. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp.
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Good. Good condition. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains.
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Fair. A readable copy. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Dust jacket may be missing. Pages can include considerable highlighting markings writing but cannot obscure the text. May be an Ex-lib. copy and have standard library stamps and or stickers. May NOT include discs or access code or other supplemental material. We ship Monday-Saturday and respond to inquiries within 24 hours.
Jose Saramago is more of a realist than Gabriel Garcia Marquez, his fellow Nobel Prize awardee, but Baltasar and Blimunda is indeed a fabulist tale of an unwed couple--one who is one-handed with a hook, the other can see souls--and their undying love during the Inquisition in 18th century Portugal. The ambitious novel encompasses church repression and doctrinal disputes, monarchical splendor, and a Padre's efforts to construct a flying balloon, perhaps a metaphor for their "buoyant" love. If this reader has any reservation, it's Saramago's habit of excising quotation marks around dialogue and simply jamming it together. Instead, he uses only capitals and commas to indicate a change in speaker. As with Faulkner or Garcia Marquez's pages of unpunctuated prose, at times it can prove a major obstacle , even an annoyance.
