{"product_id":"9780974311029","title":"Clockwork Game: The Illustrious Career of a ChessPlaying Automaton","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn 1769, the court of Empress Maria Theresia witnessed one of that era's most amazing feats of engineering: a machine that could play chess. Artfully constructed by a Hungarian nobleman named Wolfgang von Kempelen, the chess-machine played a unique game against each opponent, far surpassing the abilities of all its fellow automata. Throughout its eighty-five year career,\u003cbr\u003eaudiences across Europe and the Americas flocked to see the mechanical marvel seemingly capable of human intelligence; Napoleon, Charles Babbage, and Benjamin\u003cbr\u003eFranklin were among its challengers, and Edgar Allen Poe wrote an essay attempting to explain how it worked. Despite its demise over a hundred fifty years ago, its mystery continues to fascinate, and its audience's reaction to its Orientalist trappings casts fresh light on our present sense of the\u003cbr\u003e'exotic'.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWritten and Illustrated by Jane Irwin, author of the\u003ci\u003e Vögelein\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003egraphic novels, \u003ci\u003eClockwork Gam\u003c\/i\u003ee retells the true story of the world's first chess-playing automaton, blending reality and fiction into a singular graphic novel.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Fiery Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47023413133552,"sku":"9780974311029","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780974311029_p0.jpg?v=1763876787","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780974311029","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}