Cover of the first edition | |
Author | Gore Vidal |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | Narratives of Empire |
Genre | Historical novel |
Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1976 |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | 364 pp |
ISBN | 0-394-49750-3 |
OCLC | 1859740 |
813/.5/4 | |
LC Class | PS3543.I26 A6214 1976 |
Preceded by | Lincoln |
Followed by | Empire |
1876 is the third historical novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series. It was published in 1976 and details the events of a year described by Vidal as "probably the low point in our republic's history".
The novel is written in the form of a journal written by Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler.
The novel follows Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler who has recently returned to the United States after more than 30 years in Europe, where he married into minor Napoleonic nobility; he is accompanied by his beautiful, young, widowed daughter Emma, the Princesse d'Agrigente. She immediately becomes the darling of New York high society. Despite his fame and affluent image, Schuyler finds work as a journalist because his wealth has been destroyed by the Panic of 1873 and his daughter's late husband has left her penniless. Schuyler also supports the Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New York, because he hopes to secure himself a diplomatic position with the incoming administration, enabling him to return to Europe.
The early chapters detail the Schuylers' introduction into New York society and the engagement between Emma and John Day Apgar, a wealthy but rather dull young lawyer and scion of a leading New York family. The later chapters chronicle Schuyler's sojourn in Washington, DC and Emma's growing friendship with the wealthy Denise Sanford and her boorish husband William. Emma and Denise become close friends, but after Denise dies in childbirth, Emma breaks off her engagement to Apgar and marries Sanford instead. [1]
The political backdrop to the story is the 1876 presidential election, a close contest between Tilden and the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Tilden won the popular vote, but there was a dispute over the results in Louisiana, Oregon, South Carolina, and Florida. In Florida, the Republican leaders of the State and the Electoral Commission initially reported a victory for Tilden, before deciding that in fact Hayes had won. Vidal builds up to this historic crisis through the activities of a mixed cast of historical and fictional characters, some of the latter having appeared in Burr or having descended from characters in that novel.
The 1876 United States presidential election was the 23rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1876. It was one of the most contentious and controversial presidential elections in American history, and is known for being the catalyst for the end of Reconstruction. Republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes faced Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. After a controversial post-election process, Hayes was declared the winner.
Samuel Jones Tilden was the 25th Governor of New York and the Democratic candidate for president in the disputed election of 1876. He was the first, and thus far only, individual to win an outright majority of the popular vote in a United States presidential election but lose the election itself, though four other candidates have lost a presidential election despite garnering a plurality of the popular vote.
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, patrician manner, and polished style of writing.
Mathilde Laetitia Wilhelmine Bonaparte, Princesse Française, Princess of San Donato, was a French princess and salonnière. She was a daughter of Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte and his second wife, Catharina of Württemberg, daughter of King Frederick I of Württemberg.
Burr (1973), by Gore Vidal, is a historical novel that challenges the traditional founding-fathers iconography of United States history, by means of a narrative that includes a fictional memoir, by Aaron Burr, in representing the people, politics, and events of the U.S. in the early nineteenth century. It was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1974.
Myra Breckinridge is a 1968 satirical novel by Gore Vidal written in the form of a diary. Described by the critic Dennis Altman as "part of a major cultural assault on the assumed norms of gender and sexuality which swept the western world in the late 1960s and early 1970s", the book's major themes are feminism, transsexuality, American expressions of machismo and patriarchy, and deviant sexual practices, as filtered through an aggressively camp sensibility. The controversial book is also "the first instance of a novel in which the main character undergoes a clinical sex-change". Set in Hollywood in the 1960s, the novel also contains candid and irreverent glimpses into the machinations within the film industry.
The Compromise of 1877 was an unwritten deal, informally arranged among U.S. Congressmen, that settled the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election. It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and formally ending the Reconstruction Era. Through the Compromise, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that Hayes would remove the federal troops whose support was essential for the survival of Republican state governments in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. The compromise involved Democrats who controlled the House of Representatives allowing the decision of the Electoral Commission to take effect. The outgoing president, Republican Ulysses S. Grant, removed the soldiers from Florida. As president, Hayes removed the remaining troops from South Carolina and Louisiana. As soon as the troops left, many white Republican Carpetbaggers also left, and the "Redeemer" Democrats took control. They already dominated other state governments in the South. What was exactly agreed is somewhat contested as the documentation is insufficient.
The Golden Bowl is a 1904 novel by Henry James. Set in England, this complex, intense study of marriage and adultery completes what some critics have called the "major phase" of James' career. The Golden Bowl explores the tangle of interrelationships between a father and daughter and their respective spouses.
The Electoral Commission was a temporary body created on January 29, 1877 by the United States Congress to resolve the disputed United States presidential election of 1876. Democrat Samuel J. Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes were the main contenders in the election. Tilden won 184 electoral votes—one vote shy of the 185 needed to win—to Hayes's 165, with 20 electoral votes from four states unresolved. Both Tilden and Hayes electors submitted votes from these states; and each claimed victory over the other.
Empire is the fourth historical novel in the Narratives of Empire series by Gore Vidal, published in 1987.
Katherine Jane ("Kate") Chase Sprague was a Washington society hostess during the American Civil War. During the war, she married Rhode Island Governor William Sprague.
The Golden Age, a historical novel published in 2000 by Gore Vidal, is the seventh and final novel in his Narratives of Empire series.
Henry Symes "Harry" Lehr was an American socialite during the Gilded Age who was dubbed "America's Court Jester".
The 1880 Democratic National Convention was held June 22 to 24, 1880, at the Music Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, and nominated Winfield S. Hancock of Pennsylvania for president and William H. English of Indiana for vice president in the United States presidential election of 1880.
The 1876 United States elections were held on November 7. In one of the most disputed presidential elections in American history, Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio ended up winning despite Democratic Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York earning a majority of the popular vote. The Republicans maintained their Senate majority and cut into the Democratic majority in the House.
The 1876 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 7, 1876. All contemporary 38 states were part of the 1876 United States presidential election. New York voters chose 35 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
There have been five United States presidential elections in which the winner lost the popular vote including the 1824 election, which was the first U.S. presidential election where the popular vote was recorded. Losing the popular vote means securing less of the national popular vote than the person who received either a majority or a plurality of the vote.
The 1876 U.S. presidential election occurred at the twilight of Reconstruction and was between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. After an extremely heated election dispute, a compromise was eventually reached where Hayes would become U.S. President in exchange for the end of Reconstruction and a withdrawal of U.S. federal troops from the South.
The 1876 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 7, 1876, as part of the 1876 United States presidential election. Florida voters chose four representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
William Archer Cocke was an American attorney and politician who served as the 13th Florida Attorney General. Cocke was placed into the national spotlight due to his role in the controversy following the 1876 presidential election.
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