The Arcanum
  • Published: 6 August 1999
  • ISBN: 9780553506921
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $25.00
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The Arcanum

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Imprisoned in a fairy-tale castle and under constant threat of execution by his ruthless captor an 18th century apothecary struggled to realize the alchemist's dream. His name was Johann Frederick Bottger. But instead of transforming base metal into gold he was to discover the formula for something even more exotic and elusive, a substance so precious it was known as 'white gold'. And it was a formula for which others were prepared to lie, cheat, steal and even kill to possess.

This was the remarkable backdrop to one of the most strange and compelling episodes in European cultural and scientific history; a tale of genius and greed, of demonic cruelty and exquisite beauty, of the best and worst of which man is capable - it is the true story of the invention of European porcelain.
  • Published: 6 August 1999
  • ISBN: 9780553506921
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $25.00
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Janet Gleeson

Janet Gleeson is the author of works of fiction and nonfiction which have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her books include The Arcanum, which was Radio 4 Book of the Week and a Sunday Times bestseller, The Money Maker, An Aristocratic Affair and The Lifeboat Baronet, as well as three historical crime novels. She has a BA Hons in English and Art History from Nottingham University and an MA from Birkbeck College, University of London. She worked at Sotheby's and Bonhams where she specialised in old master paintings before starting her writing career as a columnist for House & Garden and an editor for Reed Books. She lives in a medieval barn in Dorset.

Also by Janet Gleeson

An Aristocratic Affair
The Thief Taker
The Serpent In The Garden
The Grenadillo Box
The Moneymaker
See all

Praise for The Arcanum

The number one bestseller

'Breathtaking...a story which has everything: greed, wars, revolution, financial chicanery, industrial sabotage, betrayal and bloodshed'

Guardian

'The author's background research is as admirable as her storytelling...intended to be the next Longitude, and it deserves to be'

Country Life

'Extremely readable...worthy of Dumas, a rich brew of jealousy, betrayal and industrial espionage...fascinating'

Sunday Telegraph

'A remarkably exciting story, told with suitable panache'

Independent on Sunday

'Extraordinary...a history so replete with bile, jealousy, war, fornication, betrayal and backstabbing that it could fuel a TV miniseries...Readable, enlightening and amusing'

Mail on Sunday

'A wonderful and gripping story...bears comparison to Dava Sobel's Longitude'

David Battie, The Times

As read on BBC Radio 4

'An extraordinary story of greed, obsession and betrayal. Gleeson tells it brilliantly'

Miranda Seymour, The Sunday Times