A 16th-century Spanish servant named Quinola has one absurd mission: convince King Philip II and the Spanish Inquisition to believe in steamships. Armed with nothing but wit, nerve, and an inventor-master who may be either a genius or a madman, Quinola manipulates his way through court intrigue, dodging assassination plots, outwitting the Captain of the Guards, and maneuvering for a chance to present the impossible to the king himself. Oh, and he wants to marry an heiress too. Balzac writes comedy like a man possessed, letting his clever servant loose in the deadly serious world of Habsburg Spain, where innovation might as well be heresy. The result is a sparkling theatrical farce that somehow also manages to be a sharp examination of how progress battles against entrenched power, and how the clever few survive the powerful many. It's theatrical, it's fizzy, and it features one of the most entertaining servants in 19th-century literature.
