Whatever his charming qualities (he's often mentioned being genuinely beneficent towards poor ladies), very little else good is said about Aaron Burr. He seemed in all the biographies I've read to be an interesting man.īut he's always described as more or less a villain. A rascal and a rake who was the toast of Southerners who hated Hamilton, the toast of ladies throughout Europe, he later remarried and then was divorced by a rich widow who was represented by one of Hamilton's sons. He was tried for treason for allegedly planning to take part of the United States with him.

The third Vice President, who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel and was later accused of trying to create his own empire in the West. One character who figures significantly throughout the early Republic is Aaron Burr. It was a pretty small society everyone knew each other. Having read biographies of six of the Founding Fathers in the last year, including Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, there are a lot of recurring characters. With their broad canvas and sprawling cast of fictional and historical characters, these novels present a panorama of American politics and imperialism, as interpreted by one of our most incisive and ironic observers.

Together, they explore both Burr's past - and the continuing civic drama of their young nation.īurr is the first novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series, which spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to post-World War II. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist named Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler.

In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated - and misunderstood - figures among the Founding Fathers.

Gore vidal 1876 review