Mary, Mrs. A. Lincoln
A Novel
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4.5 • 23 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A novel about the life of Mary Todd Lincoln, narrated by the First Lady herself, a USA Today choice for Best Historical Fiction of the Year.
The wife of Abraham Lincoln is one of history’s most misunderstood and enigmatic women. She was a political strategist, a supporter of emancipation, and a mother who survived the loss of three children and the assassination of her beloved husband. She also ran her family into debt, held seances in the White House, and was committed to an insane asylum—which is where Janis Cooke Newman’s debut novel begins.
From her room in Bellevue Place, Mary chronicles her tempestuous childhood in a slaveholding Southern family and takes readers through the years after her husband’s death, revealing the ebbs and flows of her passion and depression, her poverty and ridicule, and her ultimate redemption, in a novel that is both a fascinating look at a nineteenth-century woman’s experience and “an old-fashioned pleasure to read” (The Plain Dealer).
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Abraham Lincoln's widow was committed by her son in 1875; kept awake by the bedlam of her fellow inmates, she takes up a pen. Newman, author of the memoir The Russian Word for Snow, portrays Mary Todd Lincoln (1818 1882) as a proto-feminist: she seduces poor Illinois lawyer Lincoln; kick-starts his career; draws his attention to the slavery issue; corrects his elocution before the Lincoln-Douglas debates; and lobbies behind the scenes (she also has an affair). After the 1860 election, the narrative returns to accepted history, dominated by Mary's crushing misery after a son's death in 1862, her husband's assassination and another son's death in 1872, punctuated by lavish shopping expeditions and an occasional psychotic break. Not introspective and demonstrative, Mary presents a challenge for any historical novelist. Newman makes a good choice in telling the story through Mary's eyes and drawing readers into her perspective. Lincoln buffs can give this a pass because he comes across as a shadowy figure, but readers looking for a vivid, mostly flattering (and rather massive) account of his once-notorious spouse, whose letters are becoming more read, will not be disappointed and those who simply come upon it will be happily surprised.
Customer Reviews
Fascinating Projection of What Might Have Happened
Although I found the book fascinating, I questioned constantly how much of it was based on fact. I hope to read more about Mary Todd Lincoln and separate fact from fiction.