Money frees serfs, enfranchises women, and makes liberty possible. It
“freezes” desire, abstracting it, putting it into motion. But its very
abstraction—the way trust in money substitutes for trust in
people—has allowed money to subsume all other systems of value. James
Buchan’s historical and literary inquiry into money is also a long goodbye to
the obsolete virtues of politics, civics and aesthetics. Frozen Desire reads
like Patrick Leigh Fermor writing in the grip of a Cassandra complex—
compassionate, elegaic, and full of local colour. Published by Picador,
£17.99, ISBN 0330355279.
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