Lincoln: A Novel [Paperback]

The story is told through Lincoln himself, his wife Mary Todd, William H. Seward the Secretary of State, Salmon P. Chase the secretary of the Treasury; David Herold, in his elder teenage years, a future conspirator of John Wilkes Booth; and William Sprague, the roguish and clownish millionaire Rhode Island governor cotton magnate whose arrival on the scene portends the coming tribulations of the Chase family. The prime perspective through which Vidal tells the story is probably John Hay, future secretary of state, one of Lincoln's two secretaries.

Another virtue of the story is Vidal's ability to paint a picture of Washington D.C. in the early 1860's, obviously completely urecognizeable 140 years later, a little glimpse of antebellum America before it disapeared. Vidal paints a picture of the town that the reader can almost literally see in her mind, at least as it was seen by the almost exclusively privileged characters in the book.

Lincoln is fairly well crafted, a very calm and quiet man. Vidal makes him into a likeable character but the reader is able to see through his cryptic personality, the effects of the extreme horrors of the war on him. But Lincoln is also an immensely crafty politician, despite his appearance of being merely a midwestern rube corporation lawyer who likes to tell dumb stories. Seward assumes that he will manage the government at the outset of Lincoln's election and Lincoln simply be a figurehead but by 1863, Seward has been outmaneuvered subtly and has become one of Lincoln's lieutenants. Chase tries to take advantage of Lincoln too and is outmaneuvered likewise.

Vidal describes Lincoln as a fairly ruthless politician beneath his veneer. He suspended habeas corpus and threw opponents of the civil war in prison by the thousands. He used the army to manipulate politics in the border slave states. His goal in fighting the civil war was to preserve the union; if he could have save the union by expanding slavery he would have done it. Vidal describes Lincoln's indignation at a general whose order he countermanded in the summer of 1861 to free the slaves of rebels in the Missouri area. By the summer of 1862, he had become convinced of the military necessity of declaring free, slaves in states rebelling against the union. The result of this was the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln eventually became an advocate of abolishing slavery all together by 1864. He also put forth fervently the idea that as many American blacks as possible should be transported to colonize somewhere in Latin America or someplace far away from white Americans, in order to avoid racial warfare(so the excuse went). He was in favor of "compensating" slave owners for the loss of their slaves and only giving black union soldiers and the "most intelligent" the right to vote. He advocated bringing back the Southern states into the union with no obligation other than for ten percent of the population of each of the states to swear allegiance to the Union. In other words, the course that Andrew Johnson (the episode as described by Vidal, with his drunken speech after he was sworn in as vice president at the beginning of Lincoln's second term is amusing) would follow after the war before being defeated by the Radical Republicans in 1867.

Vidal makes constant use of subtle sardonic humor in describing the actions of his characters. But he also shows a great deal of intelligent compassion for them. Lincoln is portrayed compassionately but his and his colleagues' not exactly creditable political intrigues are described vividly. We see a lot of John Hay, but don't get terribly deep into his character; he is more of a reporter for Vidal than anything but he is interesting nonetheless. David Herold is very real in his childish yearning to become a hero for the confederacy in spite of being stuck as clerk and delivery boy at a pharmacy and lies to his friends that he had something to do with a failed attempt to poison Lincoln.. David is assigned mainly the duty of picking up what gossip he can from the customers of the pharmacy, which is frequented by the political elite, but he doesn't get a whole lot.

Mary Todd is described vividly in her extremely capricious spending habits, which places her in a compromised position and her great hunger for social prestige. Mary Todd is followed through the death of her son Willie and to the end of the administration. She is afflicted with severe headaches, which cause her bouts of insanity. I liked the scene at the front where Lincoln is off with the Generals. Here Mary with an insanity bout/headache building inside her calls a General's wife a "whore" and makes her cry and Is very catty towards Ulysses S. Grant's wife and others. It is a pretty tragic scene but it is funny in its absurdity.

I must say I was particularly struck by the troubles that suddenly beset toward the end, Salmon Chase and his lovely daughter Kate. They are shown to be who are caught up in the terrible game of politics and privilege and thus are tragic figures. Chase's quest for the presidency ends in comic failure. The story of Kate's decline has a sort of air of Dostoyevksy.

Vidal says in his afterward that he did little inventing in this book for the most part. He did create a life for David Herold before his joining Booth's conspiracy. Booth appears late in the book but Vidal does a good job in portraying him as the slightly unstable and decadent theater star that he was.

The story is told through Lincoln himself, his wife Mary Todd, William H. Seward the Secretary of State, Salmon P. Chase the secretary of the Treausury; David Herold, in his elder teenage years, a future conspirator of John Wilkes Booth; and William Sprague, the roguish and clownish millionaire Rhode Island governor cotton magnate whose arrival on the scene portends the coming tribulations of the Chase family. The prime perspective through which Vidal tells the story is probably John Hay, future secretary of state, one of Lincoln's two secretaries.

Another virtue of the story is Vidal's ability to paint a picture of Washington D.C. in the early 1860's. With his great gift for words, Vidal paints a picture of the town that the reader can almost literally see it in her mind, at least as it was seen by the almost exclusively privilleged characters in the book. It was a pretty tumultuous town, the capital of a nation beginning to undergo severe change and Vidal provides the reader a good feeling of the effects on the town of wartime. There are hordes of people swarming in the city for government jobs, soldiers, profiteers, and after a while discharged starving desperate Confederate POW's, a few of whom we meet at the end of the book joining John Wilkes Booth's conspiracy.

Lincoln is fairly well crafted, a very calm and quiet man. Vidal makes him into a likeable character but the reader is able to see through his cryptic personality, the effects of the severe trials and tribulations of the war on him. But Lincoln is also an immensely crafty politician, something his much more worldy rivals like William Seward find out too late. Seward assumes that he will manage the government at the outset of Lincoln's election and Lincoln simply be a figurehead but by 1863, Seward has been outmaneuvered subtly and has become one of Lincoln's lieutanents. Chase tries to take advantage of Lincoln too and is outmaneuvered likewise.

Vidal describes Lincoln as a fairly ruthless politician beneath his veneer. He suspended habeaus corpus and threw opponents of the civil war in prison by the thousands. He used the army to manipulate politics in the border slave states. His goal in fighting the civil war was to preserve the union; if he could have save the union by expanding slavery he would have done it. Vidal describes Lincoln's indignation at a general whose order he countermanded in the Summer of 1861 to free the slaves of rebels in the Missouri area. By the summer of 1862, he had become convinced of the military necessity of declaring free, slaves in states rebelling against the union. The result of this was the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln eventually became an advocate of abolishing slavery all together by 1864. He also put forth fervently the idea that as many American blacks as possible should be transported to colonize somewhere in Latin America or someplace far away from white Americans, in order to avoid racial warfare(so the excuse went). He was in favor of "compensating" slave owners for the loss of their slaves and only giving black union soldiers and the "most intelligent" the right to vote. In other words, the course that Andrew Johnson (the episode as described by Vidal, with his drunken speech after he was sworn in as vice president at the beginning of Lincoln's second term is amusing) would follow after the war before being defeated by the Radical Republicans in 1867.

Vidal makes constant use of subtle sardonic humor in describing the actions of his characters. But he also shows a great deal of intelligent compassion for them. As I say, he his never boring, evokes considerable color in the story. We see alot of John Hay, but don't get terribly deep into his character; he is more of a reporter for Vidal than anything but he is interesting nonetheless. David Herold is very real in his childish yearning to become a hero for the confederacy in spite of being stuck as clerk and delivery boy at a pharmacy and lies to his friends that he had something to do with a failed attempt to poison Lincoln. The pharmacy is frequented by the political elites for their medical needs. David is assigned mainly the duty of picking up what gossip he can from the customers of the pharmacy, but he dosen't get a whole lot.

Lincoln is portrayed compassionately but his and his colleagues' not exactly credible political intrigues are described vividly. Mary Todd is described vividly in her extremely capricious spending habits which she tries to hide from her husband and places her in a compromised position which causes some trouble for her husband. Mary Todd is followed through the death of her son Willie, the episode which Vidal describes with his usual skill, and to the end of the administration. She is afflicted with severe headaches which cause her bouts of insanity. I liked the scene at the front where Lincoln is off with the Generals and Mary Todd is slowly going into a bout of insanity. Here she rages at Ulysses S. Grant's wife and others and calls the wife of a general a "[prostitute]" and makes her burst into tears because the wife had been riding next to Lincoln and thus is perceived by Mary in her extreme paranoia to be trying to seduce the president. It is a pretty tragic scene but it is funny in its absurdity.

I must say I was particularly struck by the troubles that suddenly beset toward the end, Salmon Chase and his beautiful daughter Kate. They are shown to be well intentioned people but who are caught up in the terrible game of politics and privillege and thus are tragic figures. Chase's quest for the presidency ends in comic failure. The story of Kate's decline has a sort of air of Dostoyevksy.

Vidal says in his afterword that he did little inventing in this book, only for the most part, inventing David Herold's life before his joining Booth's conspiracy. Booth appears late in the book but Vidal does a good job in portraying him as the slightly unstable and decadent theater star that he was.