I found it at a flea market for a buck and—what the heck—off I went to 1860.

A good author makes history captivating for the reader, and the megalomaniac Vidal is up to the task. In you have no interest in the backstabbing, self-interest politics of the Civil War, and how Lincoln navigated the country through its darkest hour, skip this one. But, perchance you’re up to a good yarn, Lincoln, first published in 1984, will make those sepia days come to life. Did they really say everything in the book? Of course not. But the big quotes are there, including Lincoln’s despondency over the reception of his Gettysburg Address. Many papers called it a dud. A Columbus, Ohio paper labeled it one for the ages.

The charged political atmosphere of 2020 made this book unnervingly timely. The day of his inauguration, Lincoln was snuck into Washington D.C. because of a possible assignation attempt—one of many over the next four years.

No need to skip to the ending of this one. You know how it ends.

Once again, I am amazed by the breadth and depth of Vidal's knowledge. His seemingly encyclopedic grasp of the era is matched in equal parts by caustic wit and empathy. Vidal's Lincoln is at once human and monolithic, and the pages are imbued with his curious melancholy. (On a side note, one gets the feeling that Mark Ryden had read this book...)
The supporting characters are equally interesting. Mary Todd is nuanced and Vidal brilliantly tracks the evolution of Lincoln's relationship with his cigar chomping and ultimately lovable secretary of state, Seward. But in the end it's Vidal's one liners that I love best. Whether humorous, descriptive, or dramatic, they'll give you chills.

I'd like to give this book 5 stars for the extraordinary undertaking of thought and research that it represents, but the book, while very good, is weakened by its ambition and its reliance on dialog.

I think Vidal developed insight into many of the players (Lincoln, Mary, Salmon Chase, Kate Chase, Sprague, Stanton, Seward, David, Hay...) and wanted to sketch a portrait of each one of them. This detracted from his most interesting portrait, that of Lincoln.

The characters are developed primarily through conversation, so much that it reads more like a script than a novel. Even as a script, it's in need of an edit. Some of the conversation has tremendous impact, such as Lincoln at cabinet meetings, exchanges with Mary, meeting with free Blacks, Lincoln on his own political situation, Mary talking with relatives, David and Booth, and Hay in Paris. At other times, the dialog seems to be there because it's just too clever to leave out.

Gore's "Vidal's Burr: A Novel" is a far better book. Perhaps my reading was enriched by my having read Chernow's "Alexander Hamilty and Isenberg's "The Fallen Founder". Perhaps I have caught more nuance had I read Goodwin's Team of Rivals" in advance.

Conceptually, I have an issue with historical fiction, but it's so damn entertaining! Gore Vidal does it better than anybody. I've read Burr and Lincoln and both are excellent. In Lincoln, Vidal doesn't deviate from the historical facts (at least per my wikopedia spot checks), but through dialogue he builds out the characters of Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and Grant in a manner that is completely believable, insightful, and, yeah, entertaining. I won't be citing "Lincoln" as a source document, but after reading it, I feel like I have greater insight into Lincoln and the civil war. On to 1876, next in the Narratives of Empire series.

Really, this book is a 4.7... Along with "Team of Rival" and the movie 'Lincoln' this is truly the most interesting and entertaining Lincoln novel I have read. Gone is the stereotypical self-educated, rail splitter who was born in a log cabin he helped his father build, replaced by an adroit, take-no-prisoners political creature, capable of doing the right things in the most efficient (yet sometimes illegal) ways...
Vidal has created personalities out of historical characters, from the very young personal secretaries, John Hay and John Nicolay (who both went on to have long successful careers in government) to the more familiar William Seward and Salmon Chase...I can really believe that I am listening to these men as they would have been.
And what of poor Katie and Hellcat...what a pair of characters right out of history.

Good to great book... recommended!

Stunning political/historical novel.

I read Gore Vidal's biography of President Lincoln several years ago, after watching and In Depth interview on C-Span Books TV. He placed a high value on writing historical fiction as a way to read and learn about history. The primary value of historical fiction (besides the pleasure of reading), where the writer has done considerable research to get the details mostly right, is being its ability to make historical events comprehensible, by providing the reader with context for how events would look to a person living through the era. A lot of historical events and controversies seem impenetrable, pointless, or trivial to modern readers, which can make it very difficult to really understand the passions of the times. A good historical writer can let you get into the heads of people a bit to understand why they would care so deeply about an issue that seems silly today. A second thing historical fiction can provide is a sympathetic frame to historical events by following characters (real or made up) through historical events, the writer can provide a window for the reader to become emotionally involved in historical events, in a way that a non-fiction treatment might fail to do. This can also reduce large, complicated events down to a more human scale, making it easier to absorb at least one angle of historical events (at the expense, perhaps, of having the broad view of what's going on).

The book splits its time between Lincoln's White House and the eventual plotters who assassinate him. The Lincoln sections are mostly told from the point of view of John Hay, his young secretary. This is a device that I recall worked well as it allowed Lincoln to stay a little mysterious and distant to the reader, while still providing a fairly intimate portrayal of his personality and presidency. Lincoln comes across as very human and likable, but also slowly getting crushed under the weight of the war, and shows some of the progression his own thinking goes through as the war drags on.

In general, I've found the Vidal historical novels that I've read ("Burr", "Lincoln", and "Julian") a little dry, but well worth reading. He's very good at providing the context that I mentioned above, and providing insight into how mostly forgotten historical events looked to people alive at the time. The downsides are that the characters sometimes stay a little distant, and Vidal seems to be mostly interested in the gentry, he rarely spends time with "regular" American people.

Where to even start with Vidal's masterpiece? This book delights quite as much as it informs, which happens to be quite a lot. The author manages to weave several storylines together pretty seamlessly, a feat that might might weigh the book down if it didn't all flow so well. Readers are quickly immersed in the smoke-filled rooms of Civil War-era Washington, taking in the fractious Lincoln cabinet, the endless intrigues of the radical Republicans, and the hazy world of Confederate espionage. The book centers around four main storylines: Lincoln's day-to-day, the "Jacobin" caucus gathered around Treasury Secretary Chase's presidential bid, Mary-Todd Lincoln's inner world and financial woes, and a Southern spy ring operating in the capital. My favorite character has to be the sanctimonious Chase, who mixes genuinely good abolitionist fervor with a sort of bumbling opportunism. All of the main characters are similarly mixed, and deeply flawed bags. Secretary of State Seward is devious and cunning when plotting to undermine the Lincoln administration, but capable of realizing when he's been outplayed. Mary-Todd is fanatically devoted to her husband, yet incapable of seeing how many problems she creates for him. Lincoln himself at times seems to be groping in the darkness toward his policies and improvising for his audience with overused country tales, yet always seems to come out on top, even as he slowly wastes away physically and mentally. The ins and outs of his tenure, even things as seemingly banal as senate confirmations and budget hearings, become vividly gripping against the constantly moving backdrop of a divided Republican Party and Democratic machinations. We meet all the major players of the day, from newspapermen to House reps to port collectors. More conspicuous characters from the era such as Grant and Sherman don't show up until the very end, although McClellan turns up as one of the funnier personages. Each of the main axes of the story are interesting enough to probably be novels in their own right, especially the mischief that revolves around the Chase household, along with its his heartwarming relationship with his daughter. On the other hand, the spy arc, built around conspirator David Herold, strikes an almost comical note, even as the seemingly juvenile urges governing David's behavior barrel toward the fateful night at Ford's Theater. John Wilkes Booth fits in perfectly here, with his larger-than-life persona and theatrical flamboyance. All of it gets stitched up elegantly by Vidal, and frequently one piece of dialogue or internal monologue acts as a springboard into one of the other storylines. The whole thing feels strikingly cinematic, and yet the searing witticisms and triumphant haunting beauty of Vidal's prose typifies the very best elements of the novel as an art form. At once panoramic and almost painfully intimate, quietly tragic and surprisingly humorous, this book is in my opinion the crown jewel of Gore Vidal's ouevre. Savor slowly and enjoy.

Very detailed narrative with imaginings of all the political intrigue during a very unstable time. Interesting to read during our current pandemic crisis putting the uncertainty into perspective. Well written with multiple characters to follow. I’m sure Vidal was not present at the original history making but you’ll assume he was.

After reading Team of Rivals, I have become obsessed with all things Lincoln Administration, and I began reading Vidal's novel the day before the great literary icon passed away. I found this an engrossing read, despite the Vidal-isms and some forgivable tics that were admittedly annoying (the overuse of the word "mischieviously" and some of the more obvious add-ons to scenes where subtlety would have worked better for me). I loved his Chase murmuring hymns to himself, his slightly debauched John Hay, and wish he had done more with Stanton. For example, I hungered for the true-life scene of Stanton weeping in his office after Lincoln's death. He sat up all night with the president, serving as the rock everyone needed. Vidal makes him seem coldly efficient; reality is that once Lincoln actually passed, his Secretary of War was absolutely inconsolable. I also found the ending of the book disappointing; I really didn't need John Hay in Paris speculating about plots involving Congress and Stanton and others. I think there would have been a more graceful way to end the book.

But man, it was extremely engaging and I am very sorry that it's over, seven hundred plus pages later. I found myself bringing out Team of Rivals and buying Hay and Nicolay's biography/history of Lincoln to see how well things matched up.

The narrator head-hops excessively (for my taste) and the standard Vidal peek-a-boos between the lines of text are too rare, but the book is certainly worth reading and did nothing to dissuade me from buying the next book in the series (Empire). Lincoln’s story has been rehashed so frequently by historians, historical novelist, and hysterical conspiracy theorists, I wonder if Vidal might have been better off focusing more on Hay (and maybe the Schuylers, making the epilog feel less ad hoc). Still I can’t help but feel that Gore has earned his position as the preeminent author of his generation, as well as placing his work among the first rank of English-language prose.

This novel is easily one of the best books I have read about Lincoln. Gore Vidal does a great job of making Lincoln seem so real and attainable. So many books about Lincoln argue what a great and compelling person he was. This book fleshes out his greatness in ways other books have not. When reading this book, you see Lincoln's humanity along with his faults. Like all great men, Lincoln was not perfect; but he arose to the occasion and we all should be grateful for his humor, kindness, humanity and strength.