In Digest 97.12.11, Jan Kijlstra mentions Wolfgang von Kempelen's
Speaking Machine.  A very good novel was published in 1992 by Harcourt
Brace Jovanovitch in NY, and in pocket books by Penguin Books the same
year: "A Case of Curiosities", by Allen Kurzweil, 358 pages.

The author imagines the life of a young French clockmaker at the end
of the XVIIIth century trying to make erotic watches for his living,
and a speaking automaton as his masterpiece.  It is a pretext to
describe the life of such watch- and clock-makers in Paris at that time.
I found the book fascinating.

I shall not tell you the story, because it needs to keep some mystery
...  I was able to find it in a large bookshop near the Hyatt hotel in
Chicago last year when attending the MBSI Chicago convention.  So I
suppose it is yet available in the USA.

It was translated in French by Marie-Lise Marliere (with a very
funny and perfectly suitable front and back cover) under the title
"Le coffret", and published in France in 1993 by Pygmalion, Pocket,
No. 4176.

Could be a nice gift for the end of the year !  Did anybody read that book too ?

Best regards,

Philippe Rouille (Paris, France)
http://www.cnam.fr/museum/musica_mecanica/