For readers who can't get enough of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Gore Vidal's stunning novel about Aaron Burr, the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel--and who served as a successful, if often feared, statesman of our fledgling nation. Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated--and misunderstood--figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was ...
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For readers who can't get enough of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Gore Vidal's stunning novel about Aaron Burr, the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel--and who served as a successful, if often feared, statesman of our fledgling nation. Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated--and misunderstood--figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist named Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler. Together, they explore both Burr's past--and the continuing civic drama of their young nation. Burr is the first novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series, which spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to post-World War II. With their broad canvas and sprawling cast of fictional and historical characters, these novels present a panorama of American politics and imperialism, as interpreted by one of our most incisive and ironic observers.
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Historical fiction at the finest. A carefully researched and reconstructed portrait of Aaron Burr. If you are interested in the character and history of this time in early America this is an excellent place to start,
elizabeth w
Dec 23, 2011
Gore Vidal
Wonderful book! Excellent research and beautifully written. A real treat.
Constantius
Aug 27, 2009
Like you're actually there
Gore Vidal places less of himself beween the reader and the world he creates than any other novelist I can think of except Patrick O'Brian. Especially in the scenes of New York City in the 1830s, reading this is less like "reading a Gore Vidal novel" and more like stepping into a time machine and completely departing from everything in the present - including Vidal. It's like you're actually there.
MickyP
Jan 21, 2008
All one would expect from Vidal
Gore Vidal?s take on the polemic character, Colonel Aaron Burr, provides everything one would expect from Vidal. Insight, cutting commentary and an entertaining spin on historical events. Reading this novel is like watching Muhammad Ali box; Vidal floats like a butterfly through dinner parties, the American Revolution, Constitutional debates and trans-American rail trips. The reader is, accordingly, given a panorama of the embryonic stages of the US. Interspersed amongst these beautiful flutterings are powerful stings whereby, in the matter of one page, Vidal uses the written word as a weapon striking a decisive blow against the hypocrisy of Jefferson and Hamilton. The rogue, Burr, emerges from this novel as the one truly noble figure of the Old Republic. The Vidalesque poetic license of the closing remark forces one to go back over the story in a manner only Vidal can compel.
