Customer Reviews

Lincoln: A Novel (The American Chronicle Series)

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In the nineteenth century the historical novel enjoyed the highest possible esteem. William Thackery's historical fiction HENRY ESMOND and not VANITY FAIR was regarded by his contemporaries as his finest work, and it was routine for writers like Dickens in A TALE OF TWO CITIES and Tolstoy in WAR AND PEACE to write novels set in a different historical period. In the twentieth century, however, as novelists began more often to fictionalize their own experiences and focus on the psychological make up of their characters and historian forged a more rigorously scientific form of historical research, historical fiction suffered a sharp decrease in critical respect. To be sure, there were exceptions, whether Robert Graves writing about the Roman emperors in I, CLAUDIUS and CLAUDIUS THE GOD or in Patrick O'Brian's superb series of novels about the Royal Navy at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. But these were exceptions and not the rule and even O'Brian garnered less respect than he would have in the 19th century. All of this is to explain why Gore Vidal's superb series of novels that he calls Narratives of Empire have failed to achieve as much acclaim, as they deserve.

LINCOLN is in essence exceptionally accurate history encapsulated in the form of a novel. I have read a spate of books on Lincoln and the Civil War and I was almost never able to fault his scholarship. In a note following the conclusion of the novel he indicates that the manuscript was seen--and corrected--by no less an authority on Lincoln than David Herbert Donald, who is arguably the supreme authority on Lincoln of this age. But accuracy would be an empty thing if the narrative were not enlivened by Vidal's remarkable skills as a writer. He has a fascinating style, moving without transition from a scene with one group of characters at one point of time in one paragraph to another group at another time in the next. The narrative fairly races along.


This is not a novelistic retelling of the entirety of Lincoln's life, but focuses instead exclusively on the period of his presidency. The story begins with Lincoln's arrival in Washington and ends shortly after his assassination. In fact, the subject matter is almost precisely the same as that covered by Doris Kearns Goodwin in her new book TEAM OF RIVALS: THE POLITICAL GENIUS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The story Vidal wants to highlight is how Lincoln managed to hold together the Union despite widespread opposition to the War in the North and a cabinet that on the one hand imagined him to be a weak leader whom they could easily control and on the other filled with individuals who possessed presidential aspirations of their own. Interestingly, the two finest demonstrations of Lincoln's leadership skills come not from the work of historians, but by novelists: Vidal here and Shelby Foote in his depiction of Lincoln's extraordinary skills in his three-volume THE CIVIL WAR.

Though he is astonishingly faithful to the historical record, Vidal's greatest achievement is bringing to life in credible fashion a number of remarkable personalities in ways that are consistent with the historical record. In reading about the war, I had of course read about Seward and Chase, but neither truly emerged as vivid personalities before. Perhaps their biographers would disagree with the portraits Vidal paints, but for me whenever I read about either individual in the future, I will almost certainly do so through eyes of Vidal.

We live in an age that is obsessed with the notion of "political bias," an idea whose importance is, I think, outrageously overstated. One either is faithful to the facts or not and your bias might make you lean one way or another, but it won't allow you to distort the facts unless you are being deliberately dishonest (I think of Ann Coulter's almost macabre depiction of Joseph McCarthy in her writing). But given Vidal's well-known adherence to New Deal ideals, a word or two might be in order. I was surprised at how politically evenhanded this book was. In fact, if anything Vidal mutes the widespread belief of more contemporary Civil War historians that the conflict was overwhelmingly about slavery and instead presents the idea that it was more about states's rights (an idea that has been more and more discredited not merely by folks like James McPherson but Southern historians such as Shelby Foote). Actually, this is Vidal's New Deal point of view coming forth, as previous generations sought to not offend Southern politicians by intimating the war was about the admittedly (today, that is) disgusting institution of slavery, which no one would defend, so much as it was about states's rights, which is, while wrong, not so outrageously indefensible. In the New Deal, the Democratic Party functioned as an uneasy coalition of various groups, including labor, Northern progressives, and Southern populists. With the Nixon strategy, the South has split off from the Democratic party (initially over civil rights issues) and those on the left have been more comfortable in speaking of the Civil War and its causes in more historically accurate terms. I am, by the way, a Southerner, even if I today live in the Land of Lincoln, so I see this issues from both sides.

I recommend this novel in the strongest possible terms. It is not just a very fine novel: it is a great way to internalize history in a way that is rarely as possible in a straightforward historical account. Moreover, it is a richly complex Lincoln that is presented here. In contrast to the blandly hagiographic portrait by Carl Sandburg, this is a warts and all version. Lincoln isn't idealized, but is shown with both his virtues and vices, from his astonishing ability to handle people who imagined that they were handling him, to his self-proclaimed ignorance of financial matters. But he is more the admirable for his portrayal as a believable, flesh and blood human being, instead of mere statue.

Even Gore Vidal can't take this icon down. Though he's done his best to submarine Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton, among others, he can't conceal his affection and ardor for our greatest national hero. He sides with his class on many occasions, primarily as regards Salmon Chase and William Seward. He treats both figures with even greater esteem than either of them actually merited. The secondary plot involving Chase and his daughter are particularly telling regarding Vidal's true feelings about class and ancestry. He is and always will be a snob, when it comes to family ties.

Yet despite the fact that his protagonist is a social parvenue and a political bumpkin in many respects, Lincoln emerges as truly three-dimensional and heroic in this novel, just as he has in history in general. There are so many Lincoln biographies out there that I almost have a problem in highlighting this one; however it really is Vidal's most earnest, least cynical work; as such it deserves and earns high praise.

If I could give this book 15 stars, I certainly would. It is the finest political novel by an American writer. It has few rivals, maybe "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God", both by Robert Graves, are as good, but students of history, political science or leadership will find "Lincoln" to be an exception work of literary art.

There are several reasons why I so strongly recommend this book.

First, this novel demonstrates exceptionally well the balance between self interests and loyalty, as exemplified in the Lincoln cabinet. Salmon Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, and William Seward, the Secretary of State are finely portrayed characters. They both were positioning themselves in the Lincoln presidency to succeed him. This required careful political skills to appear supportive but make every move in regard to self interests. The passages where Lincoln wins over William Seward into a real honest partnership are masterful and my admiration for Seward soared. Salmon Chase on the other hand continues to play a careful game of undermining the President behind his back while playing the loyal servant to his face. The passage where Chase is eventually confronted by Lincoln, who was never fooled in the first place, is a wonderful example of the careful interpersonal chess moves required in political life.

Second, the novel does a wonderful job of demonstrating how difficult it is get someone to follow orders and do the job right. Lincoln remains totally frustrated with his generals, especially the handsome, charming General McClellan, with his own political ambitions. The man refused to engage the enemy. Lincoln eventually fires him and promotes General Grant. Mrs. Lincoln is somewhat scadalized by the Grants, but Lincoln finally has a military genius on his side and Lincoln offers minimal guidance as long as he sees the war turning around due to Grant's initiatives.

Third, the novel does a great job of demonstrating the total hell that Lincoln occupied in the White House. The public came into the public rooms of the White House every morning to try to intercept the President on his way to his office. His wife engaged in questionable kick-back schemes with the White House staff. His older sons went to war and his younger son dies of swamp fever. Mary Lincoln was a burden to the President and her nervous breakdown after the death of their child, Willie, further burdened this exceptional political genius.

Fourth, Lincoln practiced careful adaptive leadership, keeping his cabinet and officers focused on the grim realities they had to face every day without flights of hubris and fancy.

Lincoln held our nation together at its darkest hour. Vidal was able to capture the amazing day to day reality that this feat entailed. Vidal creates a vision of Lincoln that comes to life in this fine novel.

In his 1984 historical novel "Lincoln", Gore Vidal has written with great insight about our sixteenth president, his cabinet, his family, his enemies, and the Civil War Era. Lengthy though the book is, the writing is crisp and eloquent. It held my attention throughout. The book is part of a series of novels by Vidal exploring the history of the United States.

In writing historical novels, it is difficult to tell where fact ends and fiction begins. This is particularly the case in dealing with a complex figure such as Lincoln whose life and political legacy remain controversial and subject to many interpretations. Controversial matters that Vidal addresses in his novel include Lincoln's attitude towards African-Americans and the Reconstruction policy that Lincoln might have pursued if he had lived. Vidal's book shows careful study of Lincoln's life and the Civil War era. He uses the resources uniquely available to the novelist to good advantage by probing the thought processes and feelings of his characters where historical evidence is lacking. I found the portrait of Lincoln compelling, but it is important to remember that Vidal is writing a novel.

Vidal's book begins as the President-elect arrives secretly in Washington, D.C. a few days before his inaugaration to thwart a feared assassination attempt in Baltimore. In the course of the novel, passages of recollection by various characters, reliable and unreliable, cast some light on Lincoln's earlier life. The book moves carefully and slowly, with a great deal of attention given, and properly so, to the earlier period of Lincoln's presidency. Much attention is given to Washington, D.C. at the outset of Lincoln's administration, to attempts to avert the war, to Lincoln's formation of his cabinet, and to preparing the nation for what proved to be a long bloody struggle. The pace of the book picks up as it proceeds through Lincoln's first term and reelection, the end of the Civil War, and the assassination.

The picture of Abraham Lincoln that emerges from Vidal is of a man of great intellect, ambition and will, determined to save the Union at all costs. Vidal portrays Lincoln's overriding dedication to the Union. In order to preserve the Union, Lincoln uses extraordinary and even ruthless political skills. Thus, Vidal's novel considers extensively Lincoln's relationship with his cabinet. Vidal shows Lincoln choosing a cabinet from among his political rivals for the presidency, as well as from loyalist democrats, in order to be all-inclusive in the war effort. Lincoln deals with uncanny skill with potential rivals for the presidency, especially Secretary of State Seward and Secretary of the Treasury Chase. (A recent historical study, "Team of Rivals" by Doris Goodwin also treats Lincoln's relationship to his cabinet at length.) The book also shows Lincoln dealing with similar finesse and force with the Radical Republicans in Congress, with Chief Justice Taney on the Supreme Court, and with his military leaders.

Vidal tells his story through a variety of perspectives. Most of the time, the viewpoint is that of John Hay, one of Lincoln's two secretaries, who had detailed and close access to Lincoln throughout the presidency. Hay and Lincoln's other secretary, Nicholay, together wrote one of the earliest biographies of Lincoln. Vidal also gives the reader a large portrait of the many southern conspirators against Lincoln. In particular Vidal develops the character of a young man named David Herrold, with uncertain purpose in life, who ultimately becomes part of the Booth conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase and his ambitious daughter Kate also receive a large share of attention in Vidal's novel.

For all the attention lavished on him, Lincoln as a man remains an enigma. Lincoln largely kept his own counsel and was not demonstrative in showing his feelings. Thus fleshing-out Lincoln's character offers the novelist a great deal of latitude, and Vidal makes the most of it. His novel focuses on Lincoln's difficult relationship with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, as she spends lavishly, engages herself in political intrigue, and descends to near-madness. The Lincolns endured the death of their young son Willie during the presidency. Vidal properly gives substantial attention to Lincoln's religious views, which became increasing theistic with the prolongation of the Civil War, but never Christian.

Although Gore clearly admires Lincoln and his fortitude in saving the Union, he emphasizes that Lincoln's success came at a high price over and above the loss of blood and treasure in a long bitter war. With his suspension of habeas corpus and supression of dissent, Lincoln expanded forever the power of the Presidency. The war effort changed the character of the United States from an agrarian republic to a centralized, industrial nation. At the end of the book, Vidal puts his own misgivings into the words of John Hay, stationed in France after the assassination.. Hay remarks that "Lincoln, in some mysterious fashion, had willed his own murder as a form of atonement for the great and terrible thing that he had done by giving so bloody and absolute a rebirth to his nation." (p. 657)

"Lincoln" is a thoughtful and moving book for those readers wanting to think about the ideals and political processes of the United States and about Lincoln's role in their continuing development.

Robin Friedman

...and that is not hyperbole. As a monumental fan of both Abraham Lincoln and Gore Vidal, to see these two divergent giants merged into one book was a satisfying moment. Vidal is America's greatest essayist and one of her best fiction writers. His gifts are shown to best advantage in this masterful novel. Vidal brings an historian's knowledge of the subject to this book and blends it with a writing style that surpasses our most gifted scholar-historians. The result is a pure joy to read, an accessible vehicle in order to understand the greatest President in American history.

Lincoln purists understandably fretted about some of the historical license taken and the dialogue Vidal created. But Vidal remains absolutely true to his subject and shows that he grasped both Lincoln's prodigious intellect and pathos in a way many scholars have missed.

This is a must read book for anyone who admires Gore Vidal as a literary genius and recognized Lincoln as the preeminent American in history.

Andrew Delbanco says of this novel: "This novel will, I suspect, maintain a permanent place in American letters." I can only hope so; it certainly deserves it. The historical detail is perfect, yet never tedious, and with Vidal choosing which details to give us, we get the juiciest ones. This is a novel that will please history buffs, but it will also transform a reader into a history buff. (I found myself checking out biographies of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln from the library.)

If there is anything negative to be said about this book, it is simply that it is very long (657 pages, and they make full use of each page). This should not deter anyone from reading it. It just means you should buy it for yourself for Christmas and read it over the break. Or take it to the beach. Though I imagine a cup of coffee or tea and a blanket are more suited for this novel.

The Lincoln portrayed here is completely human, replete with humor, constipation, family quarrels, anxiety, wisdom--in short, a full and complex man. Scholars argue back and forth about whether Vidal has accurately portrayed Lincoln. This portrait is as accurate as any you'll find, but I promise you that no other will be this engaging and interesting. He even puts forth a believable theory about Lincoln's assassination (which he admits is largely conjecture in an afterword where he breaks down what parts of the novel are fictional and what parts factual).

I recommend this book to every history buff, to every literature buff, to every American.

Gore Vidal is known as a great cynic, with an acid tongue and combativeness that create such delicious ironies in his novels and essays. But in this novel, I believe that he sincerely admired Lincoln, which raised his writing to an eloquence that few of his other novels attained. In addition to his cabinet and entourage, Lincoln really comes alive in this one, as a political genius who used machiavellian means to attain his goal of keeping the US unified. THere is much humor and wonderful stories of the manuevering that went on behind the scenes, which can be read again and again at leisure.

This book was so stimulating and fascinating that it encouraged me to become a Civil War buff. That is the mark of great historical fiction, that it is a fertile starting point. But nothing else I read seemed so immediate, so real. It is so multi-sided that, soon after we met, my future wife and I argued about Vidal's Lincoln for hours.

Mr. Vidal's book, I found, was a perfect mallet with which to destroy the myth that surrounds the person of Abraham Lincoln. Not being an American, I have always been subjected to a surreal view of American history, that seemed more legend than fact. 'Lincoln' drew a humanistic picture of that president. A picture that showed a man dedictated to the country that was and would be again after a turbulent civil war. I liked the way that Mr. Vidal portrayed President Lincoln, not as the 'great emancipast' that he was to later be dubbed, but as a politician who freed the slaves solely to hurt the enemies of the Union and who wanted to push those freed slaves out of the United States, instead of letting them remain as free people. Definitely a good read.

Having read Vidal's BURR, I could hardly wait to tackle the next volume in his American Chronicle series: LINCOLN. The only disappointment came in that, from the very start, I could see the assassination scene at Ford's Theater. There was no changing the fact that all roads ultimately led to that bullet in the head; and when it happened, there was nothing more to do than quickly wrap up the loose ends and that was it!

Such is the problem of most biographical novels, that they end in the death of their subject.

Vidal deflected the problem in BURR by having the main character the fictional Charlie Schuyler (who makes a cameo appearance in LINCOLN's last chapter). Although in LINCOLN, the author used multiple points of view, not any one of these point of view characters could carry the story by himself: John Hay, Secretary of State Seward, Secretary of the Treasury Chase, and Southern sympathizer David Herrold. The last of these is the weakest. Vidal fails to provide anyone who can give a good reason to stand up for the Confederacy (such as in that great scene in the movie GETTYSBURG where Col. Joshua Chamberlain's brother talks to the three rebel prisoners and why they fought). I guess it shows that Vidal is too much of a Yankee.

In the end, LINCOLN ends with the president's secretary, John Hay, in France. Perhaps more of the narrative burden should have been borne by Hay. He was certainly interesting and articulate enough, where Chase and Seward come across as eccentric and old-womanish with exaggerated opinions of themselves; and David Herold comes across as a wannabe punk.

The glory of LINCOLN is in its characterization of the President himself. Lincoln always surprises his enemies and always knows more than he lets on. Before long we learn of Mary Todd Lincoln's growing mental illness and marvel at Lincoln's gentle yet effective protection of his family from the scandals that threaten to engulf it.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Lincoln's presidency. (The book starts with his arrival in Washington to begin his first term.) Except for the construction problems noted above, I found the book to be an admirable character study by a writer who obviously loved his subject.

Forget BURR. This is Vidal's best novel. And I would make the case that it is the best Lincoln ¡°biography.¡±

The novel starts as Lincoln arrives like a thief into a hostile Washington rife with secessionist sentiment. It ends five years later with Lincoln's assassination by the nutcase actor John Wilkes Booth. We get Lincoln's battles with his Generals who don't want to fight and the radical Republicans in congress who think he is not fighting hard enough.

But the novel is not just about Lincoln's presidency and the bloody war which engulfed it. Though some 650 pages, LINCOLN is a work of extraordinary economy. Vidal manages to work in a mini-encyclopedia through anecdotes and gossip by walk-ons like Lincoln's former law partner Herndon, who tells us that Honest Abe wasn¡¯t always so honest and also came down with syphilis a young man.

Gore's remarkable portrait of Lincoln tears down myths, yet constructs a monument to the man in their place. The 'Great Emancipator' is portrayed as very soft on slavery and in favor of not only of compensating slaveowners but of shipping blacks off to colonize Central America. Lincoln comes off as a racist buffoon in a meeting with leaders of the North's black community. Yet Lincoln emerges as unquestionably America's greatest president, someone who nearly single-handedly saved the union out of sheer force of will. Lincoln's disaster of a marriage to the borderline schizophrenic Mary Todd is portrayed with a degree of tenderness, Lincoln coming off more as a suffering parent to his wife rather than a sparring partner.

The narrative of the novel maintains a slight distance to Lincoln, while at times veering much closer to supporting characters, such as Lincoln's secretary Hay, Mrs. Lincoln and even the detestable Salmon Chase. I think Vidal did this because he wanted to leave readers with a feeling that they knew Lincoln on a personal level rather than as a subject. For that, I was most grateful.