- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Vintage (Aug 1 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375708774
- ISBN-13: 978-0375708770
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 1.8 x 19.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 381 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #434,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"A superb story. . . . Vidal's people are per-suasive, and he handles the interplay of per-sonality and power with rare skill. . . . Fascinating."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
" Vidal is the best political novelist since Disraeli. . . . [His] highly polished prose style, in part the fruit of his classical training, is a constant delight. One might even go so far as to call him a modern La Rochefoucauld."
--Louis Auchincloss
" Washington to Vidal is like some Jacobean court, a city where even the smallest movement is in-teresting and dangerous, and where strokes and suicide have taken the place of poison."
--Times Literary Supplement
Also available from the Modern Library:
Burr ¸ Lincoln ¸ 1876 ¸
Empire ¸ Hollywood
From the Hardcover edition.
--John Kenneth Galbraith
" Vidal is the best political novelist since Disraeli. . . . [His] highly polished prose style, in part the fruit of his classical training, is a constant delight. One might even go so far as to call him a modern La Rochefoucauld."
--Louis Auchincloss
" Washington to Vidal is like some Jacobean court, a city where even the smallest movement is in-teresting and dangerous, and where strokes and suicide have taken the place of poison."
--Times Literary Supplement
Also available from the Modern Library:
Burr ¸ Lincoln ¸ 1876 ¸
Empire ¸ Hollywood
From the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
With a New Introduction
Washington, D.C., is the final installment in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire,his acclaimed six-volume series of historical novels about the American past. It offers an illuminating portrait of our republic from the time of the New Deal to the McCar-thy era.
Widely regarded as Vidal's ultimate comment on how the American political system degrades those who participate in it, Washington, D.C. is a stunning tale of corruption and diseased ambitions. It traces the fortunes of James Burden Day, a powerful conservative senator who is eyeing the presidency; Clay Overbury, a pragmatic young congressional aide with political aspirations of his own; and Blaise Sanford, a ruthless newspaper tycoon who understands the importance of money and image in modern politics. With characteristic wit and insight, Vidal chronicles life in the nation's capital at a time when these men and others transformed America into "possibly the last empire on earth."
"Washington, D.C. may well be the finest of contemporary novels about the capital," said The New Yorker, and the Times Literary Supplement deemed it "a prodigiously skilled and clever performance."
From the Hardcover edition.
Washington, D.C., is the final installment in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire,his acclaimed six-volume series of historical novels about the American past. It offers an illuminating portrait of our republic from the time of the New Deal to the McCar-thy era.
Widely regarded as Vidal's ultimate comment on how the American political system degrades those who participate in it, Washington, D.C. is a stunning tale of corruption and diseased ambitions. It traces the fortunes of James Burden Day, a powerful conservative senator who is eyeing the presidency; Clay Overbury, a pragmatic young congressional aide with political aspirations of his own; and Blaise Sanford, a ruthless newspaper tycoon who understands the importance of money and image in modern politics. With characteristic wit and insight, Vidal chronicles life in the nation's capital at a time when these men and others transformed America into "possibly the last empire on earth."
"Washington, D.C. may well be the finest of contemporary novels about the capital," said The New Yorker, and the Times Literary Supplement deemed it "a prodigiously skilled and clever performance."
From the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite of the American Chronicle,
By
This review is from: Washington, D.C.: A Novel (Paperback)
Apparently others disagree, but I thought this was the best novel in Vidal's American Chronicle series. It's also the best one to start with if you haven't read any others in the series, although it's near the end chronologically. I feel that it provides a good background for the other books, making it easier to understand and get into them.Washington, DC will also stand alone as a great political novel. I'm not generally a fan of historical fiction, but I love Vidal, and this book is one of his best.
5.0 out of 5 stars
History, Politics, and Literature at Their Finest,
By Okla Elliott (Columbus, OH United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Washington, D.C.: A Novel (Paperback)
Gore Vidal is one of America's most erudite and imaginative historical and political thinkers. He also happens to be one the most intelligent, witty, and capable literary craftsmen this country has ever produced.In Washington, D. C., Vidal has created a novel that is simultaneously informative and entertaining. The story takes place between the 1930s (FDR era) and WWII. For anyone interested in that historical period, this book will be a fascinating read. The amazing thing is, however, that even if you're not interested in that historical period, you'll enjoy the satirical nuances of the book. Also, Vidal draws his characters with such authenticity that you'll get lost in the interpersonal relationships and forget the historical backdrop. A vague outline of the novel is as follows: Senator Day twarts FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court; he then gets involved in an attempt to be elected president; while all this is happening his daughter's ex-fiance Clay Overbury (who is also Senator Day's aide) marries another woman whose father is extremely rich; and the political intrigue and madness ensue. This, and all of Vidal's American Chronicle series, should be required reading for every American citizen.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disjointed,
By Penner (Brattleboro, VT USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Washington, D.C.: A Novel (Paperback)
The books that comprise the "Narratives of Empire" series were not written in order, and if you're reading them in order the cracks show up here in the sixth and final volume. In each volume, Vidal includes a preface telling you the story of the book you're about to read, and proudly reminding you that the entire series is the chronicle of a single family, direct in descent from Aaron Burr to himself. Yet when we get to "Washington DC" we learn that it was Blaise Sanford who purchased the Washington Tribune all those years ago and launched his publishing career, not his half-sister Caroline. In fact, Caroline Sanford has utterly ceased to exist, despite having been our main character during the previous two novels, during which she, yes, purchased the Washington Tribune and launched HER publishing career, only allowing Blaise to buy a 48% share years later when he was desperate. What's more, it was Caroline's mother who was descended from Burr, not Blaise's, as readers of volume three know perfectly well, which means that there are no more descendants of Burr left by volume six. Hmph.
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