Wood, Gaby. Edison's eve; a magical history of the quest for mechanical life.

Random House, Anchor. 304p. bibliog. index. c2002. 1-4000-3158-3. $14.00. A

It quacked like a duck, it flapped like a duck it even pooped like a duck. So, how was this metal clockwork creature different from a real duck? The question perplexed its 18th-century audiences, and the quest to create imitations of life continues to bemuse and unnerve us. Gaby Wood, a staff writer for the London Observer, leads us through a splendid tour of modern robots, mechanical automata, Edison's talking dolls, Barnum & Bailey's living Doll Family, and the illusionary automata of Kempelen's Chess-Playing Turk, early photographers, movies, and magicians. Her research has turned up a remarkable range of historical and fictional examples of technology simulating life and vice versa. (I only regret the omission of Robertson Davies's use of the Talking Head tradition in The Deptford Trilogy). They are all fascinating in themselves, and her perceptive analysis connects them in wonderful ways. But it is the unfailing grace of Wood's writing and her willingness to put herself into the story that makes this a truly memorable book.

Put this into the hands of high-school students as a model of first-rate prose and cultural history. If I were teaching English, history, film, sociology, psychology, philosophy, science, or computers--from middle school through grad school--I'd read parts aloud just for the fun of seeing where the discussion would go. Keep it in mind for adult book groups, too. Karen Reeds, Princeton Research Forum, Princeton, NJ

A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.