A book that complicates and challenges and deepens your understanding of Lincoln while also telling a fantastically entertaining story.

If you’re like me (if you retained only a basic knowledge of the Civil War from days in high school history class), I recommend avoiding the urge to search characters on the internet until you’re through reading. I made the mistake of looking up Stephen Douglas early on and was sad to learn of his death before Vidal had woven that into the story.

Vidal’s writing is successful but I would not call his style impressive. Still, when the book is almost 700 pages long, the ability to balance and organize a coherent plot through it all is impressive enough.

An excellent novelization of Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals"!

Gore Vidal wrote 7 novels in his Narratives of Empire series, chronicling various points in history of the American Empire. "Lincoln" published in 1984 was the 4th written, but comes 2nd in the chronological order of history.

This is the 3rd 'narratives' novel I've read of Vidal's. It was different than the other 2. Whereas "Burr" was a first-person account of fictional character Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, and his reading of old journals and reminiscences of Aaron Burr; and "1876" is the recording of Schuler's own journal from that year; "Lincoln" is told in the 3rd person.
An omnipresent narrator takes the reader into every 'room where it happens' from Lincoln arriving in Washington ahead of his first inauguration to him laying in state as mourners pay their respects. The reader gets to hear every important conversation, argument, debate, and speech and gets into the minds and thoughts of the most important people of the time.

While I certainly enjoyed the humor and perspective of narrator Schuyler (especially in "1876"), I really liked the 3rd person perspective in Lincoln, just because there was so much to learn and enjoy.
And I was able to enjoy it all the more, because I had some idea of what occurred and who these people were already, because several years ago I read the excellent "Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin (2005).
It really was an amazing historical period when the country was literally torn apart and at war with itself. And there were great debates and battles, truly inspiring leadership, and much drama and intrigue.

"Lincoln" is a long book (over 650 pages) and it took me a long time to read, but it covered the gamut: from the politics, to Lincoln's personal relationships and family, to the war and battles, and had some great secessionist characters too.

Of course, if anyone knows much of anything about history, the end is already spoiled for you, but that doesn't detract from all the build up to the final shot.
Sadly, there isn't as much humor as in "1876", but getting to know Lincoln as a person certainly makes up for it. And while "Lincoln" does include a few brothel scenes (and makes the claim that a slang term for that profession derived from Civil War General Joseph 'Fighting Joe' Hooker) this novel is much cleaner than others by Vidal.

For anyone bored by textbook history, but would like to learn more while being mostly entertained, then I highly recommend "Lincoln". Also great for the history lovers and Lincoln lovers as well.

Oh, a final beef I might attach here: The novel "Lincoln" often talks about meetings and exchanges in the White House happening in either Lincoln's office or the Cabinet Room. But in reality, the cabinet met in Lincoln's office. There was no separate room designated for cabinet meetings.

A dense and intimate novelized portrait of Lincoln that covers the time from Lincoln's first inaugural through his assasination. Vidal creates a portrait of Lincoln through the eyes of those around him, from those who hated him, to those who sought to use him, to those who underestimated him and those who idolized him. A multi-layered look at an ultimately unknowable historical figure. I definitely enjoyed this novel immensely.

ONE OF BEST LINCOLN BOOKS EVER

Very long account of the Lincoln presidency, filled with lots of characters, but lacking background history. Dominated by dialogue, this novel is a ponderous read, with little in terms of tension in the plot. Disappointing.

This is not the easiest book to read. It is dense, large, and dense. But very much worth the read if you have any interest in the American Civil War or President Lincoln.

Like any good Historical novel worth it's salt, it's brilliantly researched. A lot of the things said by Lincoln in the novel were in fact recorded speech from the great President. What I love about this novel though is that you never quite know what is going through Lincoln's head. All the point of views are from his wife, his secretary, his minister of treasury and his minister of war.

You will feel smarter after reading this novel.

Vidal's famous historical novel about the American Civil War and the Union's President, Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln, in some mysterious fashion, had willed his own murder as a form of atonement for the great and terrible thing that he had done by giving so bloody and absolute a rebirth to his nation.

It took me 400 pages to get into this book. There were just so many brief introductions of characters in the first two thirds and so many extended conversations about the political players' speculations on their chances for promotion or election and endless descriptions of the incompetence or disloyalty of most of the Civil War generals, it got a bit tedious at times. I think a lot of those passages could have been edited out and I still would have gotten the point. But, because it was Gore Vidal, I stuck it out and I'm glad I did. If you're already familiar with much of the history of the time and the political players, the level of detail may work better for you. Vidal did his research, and it is reflected in this book.

The story really does capture the flavor of the times of Lincoln's election, re-election and the Civil War. As a reader, you get a sense of what it was like to live around the Capital when it and the country were still unfinished. I'm truly glad I didn't live in those times. Vidal gives a great characterization of Lincoln and humanizes him as the shrewd politician that he truly was. He also develops the side of Lincoln as a family man. Some of the major characters become more interesting once you read up on their lives after Lincoln, such as John Hay who was one of Lincoln's secretaries as a young man during the first term and who later became a statesman in his own right as Secretary of State under McKinley and Roosevelt, or Kate Chase who, as the the daughter of Lincoln's Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase, was a belle who was ostensibly politically ambitious and entered a loveless marriage to fund her father's campaign for President (which did not work out well for her). I also liked the descriptions of the Surratt family (who featured in the movie, "The Conspirator.")

I did come away from the book feeling much more knowledgeable about our country's unrest up to and during Lincoln's presidency and the Civil War and Lincoln's battle to hold the union together. It made me realize what tremendous challenges Lincoln faced due to the secession of several states, political divisiveness, and intrigue (apparently, there were just as many cabinet resignations then as now, and he ended up with only two of his original cabinet members in his second term). It gave me a true sense of the history and concerns of that time and of Lincoln's part in it.

Saw a Goodreads' Reviewer mention of the NYTimes controversial review of Vidal's Lincoln ... remembered my pleasure while engaged by the book, my favorite Vidalian.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/03/boo...

Quote from the NYT review : "The portrait is reasoned, judicious, straightforward and utterly convincing, less dramatic, perhaps, than the inspired portrait of Aaron Burr in Mr. Vidal's ''Burr,'' but even more compelling. In his ongoing chronicle of American ..."

I read this for book club. It's kind of long, and it's not the easiest read, but it was still interesting. The author took great care to make it authentic and true. Vidal really did his homework! There are only a couple of fictional characters in the novel, and they play a very minor role in the epilogue only. If you are into Civil War era history or historical fiction, I'm sure you'd like this book a lot. What I didn't like about the book was that there was SO MUCH war talk, political talk, and just scheming scheming scheming. I wanted more of a personal story (although I realize that would be a lot harder to find fact and would require much more fiction). I still recommend it and can't wait for the book club discussion!

It took six weeks--six weeks!--to read Gore Vidal's masterly 700-page novel called "Lincoln" . . . and I wouldn't begrudge a moment of it.

To most Americans today, Lincoln is that graven image in the Lincoln Memorial, or "the man who freed the slaves." What a life you're missing if that's all you know of him. The late Gore Vidal didn't write a biography per se; instead he wrote a political biography of the crucial few years of his Presidency, and an in-depth analysis of his mastery of the political process that enabled him to merge together political opponents who often loathed him into the political force that managed, somehow, to keep the north together during the Civil War.

But that barely scratches the surface of Vidal's 34-year-old achievement. He made the president's machinations, his political maneuverings and the ghastly performance by most of his generals during the early part of the war into living, breathing, sweating experiences. We learn that Lincoln was no saint, assuming near-dictatorial status including throwing out habeas corpus, all in the name of saving the Union. We learn that the Emancipation Proclamation was all about politics, not an act in the name of civil rights. Not all slaves were freed; to understand who was freed and why is to understand even more of the rough-and-tumble of Presidential politics that resonates even today.

We may know how it all turned out, but Vidal brought them all to life: the good ones, bad ones, the ones with ambitions, the ones who wanted nothing more than preside over his assassination.

What took most of my time with this book was leaving it to fact-check for myself what Vidal had written. The cast of characters, their personalities, political positions and maneuverings read like characters in a Puccini opera, but for the most part, virtually all of them were real. Seward, Chase, Stanton, John Wilkes Booth: the major and minor characters of the era are yours to understand, warts and all. Vidal makes you smell the odor of the garbage in the streets of Washington D.C. in the 1860s. The carriages that get caught in the mud on Pennsylvania Avenue are the way you find yourself arriving at the White House. You find yourself wondering how the Rebs got all the way north to Pennsylvania, to a town called Gettysburg, and wondering if the Capital will fall to the rebel troops just a few blocks away from the White House. And how was it that Mary Todd Lincoln nearly bankrupted the U.S. Treasury with her bizarre shopping trips, and no one was there to stop her?

You don't have to love history or be a Civil Way buff to appreciate a great story that is as true today as it was in the 1860s. How little things have changed after 150 years.

After reading this book, I'm following up with Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals," "Behind The Scenes: 30 Years a Slave and Four Years in The White House," an account of a woman who took care of Mary Todd Lincoln in the White House; "The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage" by Daniel Mark Epstein; "The Life of Lincoln" by Henry Ketcham, a Lincoln biography written less that 30 years after his death, and I plan to watch every episode of Ken Burns' epic documentary, "The Civil War." Maybe, this time, I'll even understand it.

"Lincoln" was the second book in Vidal's series of seven books called the "Narratives of Power." I've read "Burr," which did for Aaron Burr and the founders of country what "Lincoln" did for the story of the Civil War. The other five highlight other aspects of our country's history, ending up in the Kennedy era. For me it's two down, five to go.

Highly recommended.