Customer Reviews

Abigail Adams: A Writing Life

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Abigail Adams: A Writing Life by Edith B. Gelles (Senior Scholar, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stanford University) is a careful, articulate, scholarly analysis of the literary and historical work of Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams. Half biography, half literary criticism, Abigail Adams: A Writing Life studies Mrs. Adams' letters as literature and looks at her correspondence in-depth. A marvelous portrayal of a unique woman in America's history, Abigail Adams: A Writing Life is highly recommended for Women's Studies and American Literary Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

This was a great book to really get to see what went on in the life of a great American heroine, Abigail Adams. After reading this book to help with a school project on women in history, I thought, "Who was really wearing the pants in the Adams family?"

Abigail Adams: A Writing Life by Edith B. Gelles was a complete let down. The author, however, is a senior scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University, and is qualified to pen this book. The book does provide, to an extent, information and resources about Abigail Adams writing and literature that could be useful in some cases. Unless interested to begin with, don't choose this book for any pleasure reading. Although this book could be helpful in some ways, it is not worth reading because of its slow pace, difficult language and lack of timeline.
From beginning to end, the book was at a very slow moving pace. The unappealing way in which the author includes every insignificant aspect of Abigail's life creates a lull in the rhythm of its flow. So many simple letters she writes to her husband or friend is analyzed and took into so much depth to where you read about it for 15 pages or more, such as, "Remember the Ladies," a letter written to her husband, John Adams. This was written for him to always remember the women working at home and to keep in mind that all women and men should be treated as equals. While attempting to read this book, it seemed to drag on as if reading so little in so much time, especially the very first chapter.
It is a resourceful book, yet is a difficult read because it lacks pace, uses unfamiliar language and jumps from date to date in a non sequential manner. While the biography of the book gives its readers a lot of factual information, her literary works interwoven into the framework of the book, made it very difficult to follow. It is apparent that Abigail Adams is a fascinating historical figure, and I am sure other authors have written books that are easier to read and that are more interesting.

Book Review
Edith B Gelles seems to greatly admire Abigail Adams in her biography on the woman, Abigail Adams: a Writing Life. However, though her previous book may have been award-winning, this book shouldn't be recommended to high school level students. This book should not be recommended as it has confusingly advanced vocabulary, it is rather biased, and opinionated, and the author skips around to different times, making it rather hard to follow, and confusing as a biography.
Reading Abigail Adams: a life of writing seemed to require a dictionary on hand for Gells's speals into long winded and maturely worded rants. She seemed to act as though every few pages needed long sentences of big words strung together to keep the reader, reading. This alienates readers, as very few people honestly wish to check the dictionary every five of six minuets while reading. Also It is very frustrating that Gelles mixed in her own hard to understand, advanced vocabulary with the already semi-confusing dialect from the 1700's. Gelles makes an already hard to understand piece of literature into a more confusing mess by adding in Adams quotes mid-sentence, making the book feel forced, and preventing a flow from forming.
Gelles uses her opinion more than anything other than quotations, and it makes for a very wishy-washy, and rather insecure-feeling reading. Gelles occasionally offers her opinion as though it is fact, Also Gelles infers a lot about what is written in Abigail's letters. She also writes as if she is omniscient. Gelles' opinion and personal ideas are sprinkled through the book generously, which is not always what is wanted in a Biography, people would prefer FACTS not guesses.
Gelles also does not use chronological order while organizing her book. She ignores the logical, standard biographical idea of using time as an organizer. At one point within three paragraphs she goes from 1814 to 1775 to 1773, making this book even harder to follow. Gelles focuses on "stories" from Abigail's life rather than historical context or any known form of organization. Gelles jumps from Abigail being friends with Mercy Warren in the first chapter to their introduction, and the beginning of their "tenitive" friendship in the third, making reading this book like trying to solve a brain puzzle.
Even as someone who has greatly admired Abigail Adams her whole life, and whom has been a bibliophile nearly as long, this is one piece of literature I would never read again, and honestly sincerely regret even renting it from the library. This book is a headache on paper, and probably one of the worst things I have read in a very long time, even the history textbooks read easier, and flow better than this book. Miss Gelles, I will never pick up this book again.