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Democracy, An American Novel (1880)

by Henry Adams

Download: [html] [pdb] [jxl]

Media: book
Types: fiction – novel
Genres: history – literature

Library of Congress

Classification: PS1004.A4 D4 1880

• PS - American literature - Canadian Literature
• PS 1-3576 - American literature
• PS 700-3576 - Individual authors
• PS 991-3390 - 19th century

Pluckable URL

URL: http://www.pluckerbooks.com/works/adamsh/democracy/

Review

Set contemporarily in the late 19th Century, Henry Adams (writing anonymously) explores the political and aristocratic structures (or structure, for they often seem to be the same) of the time by following the amateur career of the widowed Mrs. Lightfoot Lee, as she attempts to discover the machinery behind the political game.

This novel demonstrates Adams' loss of faith in American politics and the political structure. His portraits of senators and presidents, and nominees for both of these esteemed offices, are less than desirable, and sometimes downright repulsive. In reading about the wheelings and dealings of Senator Ratcliffe et al, one must wonder if politics have indeed gotten worse, or if they have simply stayed as rotten as they have always been.

I'm sure Mr. Adams would provide us with the latter explanation.

Contributed by Curtis Weyant (caw.homelinux.net) on 2001-08-09; last updated on 2008-03-07

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