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. Gore Vidal (19252012) was born at the United States Military Academy at West Point. 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.

Ĭertainly, Burr, in this instance, is seen to esteem his nemesis Hamilton higher than those generally considered the great founding fathers.For readers who can’t get enough of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Gore Vidal’s stunning novel about Aaron Burr, the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel–and who served as a successful, if often feared, statesman of our fledgling nation. The problem is that in schools in many countries the past is whitewashed, simplified, sanitized and condensed to become just a series of meaningless dates. An interesting article about Hamilton and Burr can be found here and in part says:

Certainly, he lived in exciting times and knew all the major players of the founding of the United States of America.īurr’s (or Vidal’s) views on John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson are quite different than what are those commonly held. Burr : a novel (American chronicle (Gore Vidal) Volume 1.). Surprisingly, Burr appears to have no rancour toward those who have thwarted his ambitions, slandered him, or rose above him through infamy but gives a straightforward, witty retelling of events with great aplomb and often nostalgia. In this fictional memoir, the elderly Aaron Burr recounts his long life, during which this. Aaron Burr appears in the musical Hamilton, first as the main characters friend and later as his. Schuyler tells the events himself from this point on but engages Burr in his reminiscences of past adventures in the Continental army, legal battles, his love life, politics, land speculations, his time as Jefferson’s vice-president and, of course, his infamous duel with Hamilton. Gore Vidal is undeniably brilliant author, though. The story of Burr is being told by a young law clerk, one Charles Schuyler, in the offices of Burr & Sill beginning in the year 1833 as Burr, age 77, was about to embark on a second marriage.

Gore vidal aaron burr