Rating: 
Summary: Not like Lincoln or Burr, but still interesting
Review: "1876" was written as part of a series commemorating the USA two centennial republic. Like Gore Vidal, in the year 1976 (or slightly before) other authors were invited to write a text or a book whose subject had to be related to that date (1776). For example, Isaac Asimov wrote "The bicentennial man" for the series. "1876" brings back character Charles Schuyler, who had previously appeared in "Burr". After a self-exile of forty years, Schuyler is back to his native country and begins to write his impressions for New York newspapers. 1876 is election year in USA. It is also the final year of the Grant 8-year administration, which is notorious for its corruption and scandals related to large amounts of money. Schuyler describes the race for the seat in the Oval office and his struggles to earn money in a country totally defferent from the one he left behind almost half a century before. After the ridiculous voting and election problems during the Bush-Gore dispute, the reader can see that, after 125+ years, some things (specially related to power and money) are difficult to get changed, no matter where. "1876" is about a nebulous (at least for me) period of the US history and, as always, Vidal, with his sarcasm, good prose and refined research, delivers another accurately historic fiction. The problem is, Vidal doesn't have complete respect for things he doesn't fully understand or know, so some passages of the book feature a bad taste that I don't like. This book is not so dense and enjoyable as some of Vidal's other works, like "Lincoln" or "Creation" or Burr, but still one is able to learn about the period, society, people, etc featured in the story. As part of the trilogy "Burr", "1876", "Washington D.C.", a necessary read for Vidal fans. Grade 8.6/10
Rating:
Summary: Not like Lincoln or Burr, but still interesting
Review: "1876" was written as part of a series commemorating the USA two centennial republic. Like Gore Vidal, in the year 1976 (or slightly before) other authors were invited to write a text or a book whose subject had to be related to that date (1776). For example, Isaac Asimov wrote "The bicentennial man" for the series. "1876" brings back character Charles Schuyler, who had previously appeared in "Burr". After a self-exile of forty years, Schuyler is back to his native country and begins to write his impressions for New York newspapers. 1876 is election year in USA. It is also the final year of the Grant 8-year administration, which is notorious for its corruption and scandals related to large amounts of money. Schuyler describes the race for the seat in the Oval office and his struggles to earn money in a country totally defferent from the one he left behind almost half a century before. After the ridiculous voting and election problems during the Bush-Gore dispute, the reader can see that, after 125+ years, some things (specially related to power and money) are difficult to get changed, no matter where. "1876" is about a nebulous (at least for me) period of the US history and, as always, Vidal, with his sarcasm, good prose and refined research, delivers another accurately historic fiction. The problem is, Vidal doesn't have complete respect for things he doesn't fully understand or know, so some passages of the book feature a bad taste that I don't like. This book is not so dense and enjoyable as some of Vidal's other works, like "Lincoln" or "Creation" or Burr, but still one is able to learn about the period, society, people, etc featured in the story. As part of the trilogy "Burr", "1876", "Washington D.C.", a necessary read for Vidal fans. Grade 8.6/10
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining History
Review: A great novel by even a greater author. Vidal writes with a lyrical tone that imparts a dual lesson in history and a women's struggle (desire) to advance. Perhaps Vidal's greatest triumph is that he draws you in with unsurpassed structure, content, facts, and tone that leaves the grocery store authors gasping for air. I bet you can't read just one of his books. 1876 will just be the beginning...Empire, Hollywood, and Lincoln will soon be added to your library. Of course, if you think Stephen King is some kind of genius...then you probably won't enjoy true literature..
Rating: 
Summary: Good Read Not Must Read
Review: A stylish and thought-provoking book that functions well as both political commentary and character-driven novel. An aging expatriot writer returns to the US with his widowed French daughter to find his country changed nearly beyond recognition. He throws his strength and support behind the Democratic candidate and uses his position as journalist to explore and exploit the corruption in the Grant administration. Vidal gives us no clear heroes or villains in this book-- either in the political or private stage. The time depicted is particularly relevant given the 2000 elections and the dispute over the Florida electoral votes.
Rating:
Summary: Gore Vidal's Finest Historical Novel That's Relevant Now
Review: Although written nearly thirty years ago, Gore Vidal's "1876" is a classic, elegant examination of American political corruption which remains quite relevant today, especially in light of the 2000 presidential election. Vidal's narrator and main protagonist, "Charlie" Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, is an American expatriate journalist and author who returns with his widowed daughter Emma to the United States of America on the eve of its Centennial year 1876 (which is also the title of this novel). Charlie isn't your typical disengaged reporter, but instead, a devoted admirer and friend of Democratic New York governor Samuel Tilden, whom he hopes will win the upcoming presidential election and clean house in Washington, DC, pushing through reforms which will prevent widespread political corruption of the like seen within the administration of outgoing Republican President Ulysses S. Grant.
Schuyler returns to a country he has not seen in over thirty years, still in the throes of political, social and economic chaos caused by the Civil War and political malfeasance within the Grant administration. He renews his acquaintance with several leading New York City newspaper publishers, and becomes an important political correspondent for "Jamie" James Bennett, covering the chaotic Republican convention later in the summer. In the fall, he heads to Washington DC, and becomes a "fly in the wall", paying heed to ample political intrigue while the Republicans steal the election from Tilden and his Democratic supporters, electing Rutherford B. Hayes to succeed Grant.
Vidal has been criticized for his cynicism, but here he shows a keen interest in the American political process, hoping it will remain relatively immune from corruption. Alongside Schuyler, he has an amazing cast of characters - most of whom are real - ranging from Bennett and Tilden, to none other than Mark Twain himself. "1876" remains one of the finest works of historical fiction ever written about the United States of America.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: As a general rule, I am almost ashamed to confess, I am not really drawn to historical fiction. I find most novels either too cheesy, too boring, or both. 1876, however, is neither. Rather, it is a terrific, timeless, timely novel. The novel is narrated by Charlie Schuyler (who apparently narrated Vidal's earlier novel Burr, one which I have not yet read), as he returns to the United States, after spending many years in Europe, in late 1875 with his 30-something, widowed daughter Emma. Charlie is in his sixties and is returning to the United States to write, earn some money, settle his daughter and hopefully, earn a diplomatic post in France. He attaches himself to Samuel Tilden, the New York governor who will surely, Charlie thinks, win the next election. As we all know, there is winning elections and then there is getting inaugurated, but more on that later. The first portion of the novel takes place in New York City and reads very much like an Edith Wharton novel: it is all balls and social events, etc., but told with Charlie's relentless cynicism and wonderful sense of humor. Charlie then travels to Washington D.C. and again regales the reader with more of that cynicism. That later portions of the novel are largely political, with the recounting of the shocking, to read them now, events surrounding the presidential election of 1876. If Vidal had published this novel say last year, I would say that much of what he has Charlie say is motivated by the politics of the present day. Perhaps it was motivated by the politics of the mid-1970s. The fact that the commentary relating to the 1870s written in the 1970s is still relevant in 2004 is a testament to just what a fine novel 1876 is. I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite my historical fiction misgivings. If only all authors of historical fiction were as talented as Vidal. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Does history repeat itself?
Review: Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler returns to America at the end of 1875 after his long stay in Europe, accompanied by his daughter, the Princesse d'Agrigente. It's the last days of the Grant presidency, the Adminstration rapidly decaying amid its own corruption. Prospective successors are busy lining themselves up. Through the eyes of Schuyler, Vidal takes the reader through the political high society of the day, painting a picture of an elite, and indeed a society, so devoted to the capture of wealth that principles have been wantonly (indeed, proudly) discarded. The culmination is the corrupt election of 1876, the result of which is disputed until March 1877 (ring any bells?). Democracy is seen not to be working for the benefit of all - Vidal paints a frightening picture of the New York underworld, replete with beggars, violence and prostitution, the latter of which the hypocritical male upper classes frequent regularly. I think that the propective reader needs to be aware that (surprise, surprise given that this is Vidal) this is an intensely political novel. Vidal both loves and detests the US political scene, is fascinated and yet repelled by its faults and hypocrisy: Vidal seems to say that countries get the governments they deserve, and if you've got a corrupt government then a plague on the electors for being stupid enough to elect it in the first place. Vidal may, due to the fact that he's lived in Europe for so many years (even at the time of writing "1876" if I'm not mistaken), have become more European than the Europeans - read Schuyler's views on Mark Twain for example. Although it's fiction I enjoyed "1876" as it's part of American history I am utterly ignorant of, and Vidal carries off the novel with style.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read Not Must Read
Review: Having read the preceding novels in this series I really looked forward to the subject matter that this installment promised. After reading it through I was slightly disappointed by the way Vidal approached one of the worst moments in the American Republic. I was expecting an in depth look into the politics of the late Grant Administration and the lengths those in power were willing to go to insure a Republican victory. Instead Vidal, for most of the book, examines the society in and around Washington and New York at the time. While this made for an interesting sociological study I kept feeling like I was looking for the real book to start with every new chapter. When Vidal does finally come around to the politics and presidential election of 1876 the book becomes as gripping as all the preceding books in this series. In fact the final 100 pages of 1876 kept me more enthralled than did any one portion of Lincoln or Burr. Also if you are interested in reading all the books in the line Empire does take much from the characters in 1876 so just skipping this book will leave you slightly lost as you read the novels that come next.
Rating:
Summary: Scandal on the centennial
Review: In the afterword of "1876," a novel about the centennial written in the bicentennial, Gore Vidal calls the portentous year "probably the low point in our republic's history" and warns us that history repeats itself in the most interesting ways. This was the year of the presidential election in which Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden received the majority of the popular vote *and* the electoral vote -- but Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes was "elected" and inaugurated. This scandal was somewhat of a turning point in American history, for it set a deleterious precedent for the influence of partisan politics in directly altering the outcome of an election. The details of the election are narrated by Charlie Schuyler, an American journalist who has been living in France as a diplomat for over three decades and has just returned to the United States with his widowed daughter Emma, a French princess. Facing unemployment, he accepts jobs covering timely events like the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia for various periodicals including the New York Times, edited by his friend William Cullen Bryant, the country's most celebrated poet, and the New York Herald, a newspaper of lesser distinction, published by an impulsive young man named Jamie Bennett. Meanwhile, Emma's status as part of the stock of European aristocracy permits her (and her father) entry into the upper echelons of New York society as she considers options for a new husband. The country has changed considerably during Schuyler's absence; what was once a nation of farmers is now a nation of factories and railroads with money as the prime mover, driving and corrupting the current federal government under Grant's administration. Schuyler passionately supports as candidate for president his friend Tilden -- the governor of New York, a wealthy, popular lawyer, and a sickly, dyspeptic man -- because of Tilden's ideas of reform and resistance of the will of rich men who would pass laws to protect their own fortunes while allowing them to steal from others. There is plenty of calm before the storm with regard to the election. James G. Blaine, Speaker of the House of Representatives, appears to be the front runner for the Republican nominee up until the last minute at the Republican Convention when Hayes, the little-known governor of Ohio and Civil War general, comes out of nowhere to sweep the ballots. As November and December pass into 1877, the assessment of the results of the presidential election is prolonged as several states are disputed even though Tilden's victory is evident. The country is brought to the brink of a new civil war (in Schuyler's estimation), or at least a military coup d'etat, when Grant dispatches federal troops to various locations in the South to prevent riots and rebellion by protesting Democrats. "1876" is as much a polemic as a novel; Vidal is never ambiguous about his opinions on what he believes to be debacles in the American political arena, and his tone, delivered here through the voice of Schuyler, is clear as a bell and sharp as a tack. Schuyler is an ideal narrator for a historical novel -- cynical, smug, a little vain and conceited, but disdainful of greed and very serious about the nation's political ethos. In this sense, it is odd that he does not like the work of Mark Twain, whom he happens to meet in one memorable exchange; but when your literary taste is more for Flaubert, Twain can be a tough nut to crack.
Rating:
Summary: Scandal on the centennial
Review: In the afterword of "1876," a novel about the centennial written in the bicentennial, Gore Vidal calls the portentous year "probably the low point in our republic's history" and warns us that history repeats itself in the most interesting ways. This was the year of the presidential election in which Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden received the majority of the popular vote *and* the electoral vote -- but Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes was "elected" and inaugurated. This scandal was somewhat of a turning point in American history, for it set a deleterious precedent for the influence of partisan politics in directly altering the outcome of an election. The details of the election are narrated by Charlie Schuyler, an American journalist who has been living in France as a diplomat for over three decades and has just returned to the United States with his widowed daughter Emma, a French princess. Facing unemployment, he accepts jobs covering timely events like the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia for various periodicals including the New York Times, edited by his friend William Cullen Bryant, the country's most celebrated poet, and the New York Herald, a newspaper of lesser distinction, published by an impulsive young man named Jamie Bennett. Meanwhile, Emma's status as part of the stock of European aristocracy permits her (and her father) entry into the upper echelons of New York society as she considers options for a new husband. The country has changed considerably during Schuyler's absence; what was once a nation of farmers is now a nation of factories and railroads with money as the prime mover, driving and corrupting the current federal government under Grant's administration. Schuyler passionately supports as candidate for president his friend Tilden -- the governor of New York, a wealthy, popular lawyer, and a sickly, dyspeptic man -- because of Tilden's ideas of reform and resistance of the will of rich men who would pass laws to protect their own fortunes while allowing them to steal from others. There is plenty of calm before the storm with regard to the election. James G. Blaine, Speaker of the House of Representatives, appears to be the front runner for the Republican nominee up until the last minute at the Republican Convention when Hayes, the little-known governor of Ohio and Civil War general, comes out of nowhere to sweep the ballots. As November and December pass into 1877, the assessment of the results of the presidential election is prolonged as several states are disputed even though Tilden's victory is evident. The country is brought to the brink of a new civil war (in Schuyler's estimation), or at least a military coup d'etat, when Grant dispatches federal troops to various locations in the South to prevent riots and rebellion by protesting Democrats. "1876" is as much a polemic as a novel; Vidal is never ambiguous about his opinions on what he believes to be debacles in the American political arena, and his tone, delivered here through the voice of Schuyler, is clear as a bell and sharp as a tack. Schuyler is an ideal narrator for a historical novel -- cynical, smug, a little vain and conceited, but disdainful of greed and very serious about the nation's political ethos. In this sense, it is odd that he does not like the work of Mark Twain, whom he happens to meet in one memorable exchange; but when your literary taste is more for Flaubert, Twain can be a tough nut to crack.
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