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A Conspiracy of Paper
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Benjamin Weaver: Book 1

A Conspiracy of Paper (2000) (edit title/settings)

by David Liss (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Benjamin Weaver, a Jew and an ex-boxer, is an outsider in eighteenth-century London, tracking down debtors and felons for aristocratic clients. The son of a wealthy stock trader, he lives estranged from his family--until he is asked to investigate his father's sudden death. Thus Weaver... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Once the prig was hanged, Wild put a second cross next to his name, and so the thieves of London now held the expression of double-crossing as one and the same with betrayal.”
    Benjamin Weaver
  • “These meals were one of the few rituals from my childhood that I thought on with any fondness, and I felt a fleeting rage toward my uncle for exposing me to these memories once more.”
    Benjamin Weaver
  • “As he held out an hourglass in the palm of his bony hand, I understood that, while I saw him as what I hated about myself, he saw me as someting in which he could take pride. It is a terrible thing to come to so humbling a realization, for in an instant a man sees himself as petty and illiberal and weak”
    Benjamin Weaver
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • If value is no longer vested in gold, but in the promise of gold, then the men who make the promises hold ultimate power, no? If money and gold are one and the same, then gold defines value, but if money and paper are the same, then value is based upon nothing at all.”
    Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers
  • these financial institutions are committed to divesting our money of value and replacing it with promises of value. For when they control the promise of value, they control all wealth itself.”
    Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers
  • When lands meant wealth, men could perhaps have enough. Too much land was difficult to govern. But with paper money, more is simply more.
    Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers
  • Bullishness signified that a man had an interest in selling, while bearishness meant that he pursued buying.
    Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers
  • we are all driven by our passions, and our task is to know when to submit to them and when to resist.
    Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
  • There is a sense, you see, that finance is but a game, the rules and the outcome of which have been preset by men operating in secret. These men profit from the fortunes and misfortunes of others—and they cannot lose because they themselves dictate the values of the market. That, at any rate, is what is believed.”
    Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
  • In the year 1719, foreign Jews were still not permitted to own property in London,
    Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers
  • Locke, you know, wrote that any man who admits to nothing but that which can be plainly demonstrated may be sure of nothing but perishing quickly.
    Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers
  • Consider what Mr. Pascal says of Christianity—he writes that since Christianity offers rewards for adherence to its tenets and punishments for the failure to adhere to its tenets, and the absence of Christianity offers neither, a reasonable man would opt to become a Christian because by doing so he receives the maximum chance of reward and the minimum chance of punishment.
    Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers
  • It was said that he held a book with the name of every felon in his employ, keeping count of numbers as though he were a merchant or a trader as much as a thief. When he believed one of his prigs to be withholding goods, he put a cross next to the name, indicating that it was time to hand the poor sod over to the courts. Once the prig was hanged, Wild put a second cross next to his name, and so the thieves of London now held the expression of double-crossing as one and the same with betrayal.
    Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
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First Sentence edit see section history

FOR SOME YEARS NOW, the gentlemen of the book trade have pressed me in the most urgent fashion to commit my memoirs to paper; for, these men have argued, there are many who would gladly pay a few shillings to learn of the true and surprising adventures of my life.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Chapters One to Thirty-Six
Historical Note
Acknowledgments

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 3 in Benjamin Weaver. (standard series)

Followed by A Spectacle of Corruption.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. David Liss (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Random House
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN: 0375502920
Page Count: 442

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3562.I7814 C66 2000
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

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