1876: A novel
by Gore Vidal
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Very Good+/Good+
- ISBN 10
- 0394406516
- ISBN 13
- 9780394406510
- Seller
-
WESTBANK, British Columbia, Canada
Item Price
NZ$46.34NZ$41.71
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Other than rubber stamp on end page this is an unmarked copy- DJ shows wear and tear- Blue cloth boards with gilt titles on the cover and spine, as issued." Presents Gore Vidal's "1876". Part of a grand vision of American history "from above", a multi-volume project that took the better part of forty years. The novels, in historical order, are: "Burr", "Lincoln", "1876", "Empire", "Washington, DC", "Hollywood", and "The Golden Age". Vidal's unblinking and penetrating vision throughout the entire cycle is the transformation of his beloved country from a struggling, proud, and independent Republic to a world power and out-of-control Empire. Published in the Bicentennial Year, "1876" recreates the Centennial Year, which was "celebrated with great fanfare and the most under-handed political machination in the country's history: The theft of the Presidency from Samuel Tilden by Rutherford B. Hayes. This was the Gilded Age, when robber barons held the purse strings of the nation, and the party in power was determined to stay in power" (Publisher's blurb). As a portrait of the corruption of democracy by the moneyed elite, the novel remains unsurpassed. To many readers, it is a precursor of our very own time, notably the 2000 and 2004 elections. "Vidal's historical imagination is so powerful as to compel awe" (Harold Bloom). Most of his admirers deem the essays to be Vidal's greatest achievement because they are indeed so arresting, seductive, and inimitable. As always, Bloom's wisdom puts matters in perspective: The historical novels (and their contrapuntal inversion, Vidal's hyper-novel "inventions") will take their rightful place in his oeuvre. Gore Vidal died on July 31, 2012 at the age of 86, the last of the great American public intellectual/writers of our time. We live in the Age of Mediocrity, where (nearly) everyone is a critic/blogger/pundit mouthing timid, politically correct opinions. Pundits are retail thinkers, that is, they are not real thinkers. Someday, we will realize what we have irretrievably lost. "
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Details
- Bookseller
- MAD HATTER BOOKSTORE (CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 11950
- Title
- 1876: A novel
- Author
- Gore Vidal
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Jacket Condition
- Good+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0394406516
- ISBN 13
- 9780394406510
- Publisher
- Random House
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1976
- Size
- 8 vo
Terms of Sale
MAD HATTER BOOKSTORE
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
MAD HATTER BOOKSTORE
Biblio member since 2019
WESTBANK, British Columbia
About MAD HATTER BOOKSTORE
Established 1983. All genres of used books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...