Empire by Gore Vidal

Empire Reviews

• 
  Luís

  One book is like a river and a hymn to freedom for a woman who decides to take her life with courage and determination.
  Nothing caricatural in this story; as always, Gore Vidal is not a manifesto. But, suddenly, all these characters in American society are gaining in thickness. The author discusses them with generosity but without complacency.
  If the book would often benefit from less going into detail, it remains no less a story that is very endearing and incarnate.
• 
  Tony

  This is the second book from Gore Vidal's "Narratives of Empire" that I've read, and like the other one, Burr, I enjoyed it very much. All of the books in this series feature real figures from history set against a background of real historical events, meticulously researched by Vidal -- a respected American historian.
  
  Empire is set around the turn of the 20th Century, and chronicles various events -- the assassination of President McKinley, the capture by the U.S. of the Philippines, the ascendency of Theodore Roosevelt, and the birth of the "yellow press" with William Randolph Hearst.
  
  I find Vidal's books by far the easiest and most enjoyable way to learn more about the history of the country in which I live, and was also strangely comforted by the realization that endemic corruption in America's political system is not a recent phenomenon.
• 
  Werner

  As time permits, I'm going back through my "started-not-finished" shelf, and adding brief notes to some of the books there to explain why I didn't finish them. This particular book was recommended and loaned to me by my landlady back in 1988. I'd heard of Vidal, but never read any of his work.
  
  What totally turned me off here was protagonist Caroline's matter-of-fact decision (which she carried out) to seduce another woman's husband --no wrestling with conscience involved, just a straightforward attitude of "I want him, so I'll take him." I'm sure that readers were supposed to find this an admirable example of obedience to modern society's Greatest Commandment, "Thou shalt be completely selfish 24/7, and take pride in it." I found it ethically bankrupt, and I couldn't identify with or be invested in a protagonist who was that egoistic. (There was no gender-based double standard at work there --I would have been equally repelled by a male protagonist who set out to seduce another man's wife with similar moral indifference.) After my experience with this read, I never had any curiosity to explore the author's output any further.
• 
  Beth in SF

  Gore Vidal is one of my favorite writers of all time. He's the smart guy who speaks circles around you with his vocabulary but doesn't lord it over you. First and foremost, he has always made me laugh. His satire has velvet teeth and I've admired his ability to say it as he wishes. Mixing well researched history with his own creative license has always kept me coming back for more.
• 
  Lewis Weinstein

  I read 50 pages and put it away. Every sentence is built on sarcasm. The story is confusing, with way too many characters too quickly. Not for me.
  
  I read other reviews on GR and see now that I disagree with almost everybody in this one. Maybe I was too hasty, but there are too many books to spend time on one you don't enjoy.
• 
  Marley

  Another brilliant entry in Narratives of Empire. John Hay, TR, William Rnadolph Hearst, Henry James, and my hero, Henry Adams. It can't get much better than this. And, of course, Caroline and Blaise. Like the other entries in the series, Empire had me running to the internet to look for people I should know and forgot about, like Payne Whitney and Mrs. Jack. (I'm a sucker for NY high society!)
  
  I was pleased to see William McKinley treated with some dignity as the greatest president since Lincoln. I'm from Canton and was brought up on McKinley, but the greatest president? I think GV or his characters are right. Just who was between Lincoln and McKinley . Nobody of much concern, (though I personally favor Grover Cleveland and Chet Arthur.) McKinley has for far to long been portrayed as a puppet of Mark Hanna I've thought that they were mutually beneficial to each other. McKinley certainly was no dupe and back home was always known as, smart, thoughtful and honest. His imperialism, in large part, was rooted in Protestant evangelism. That he was also a great politician never gets mention since he was assassinated in office, which stops dead any seriously pro or con study of him. Ida Saxton McKinley , a woman ahead of her time until tragedy and epilepsy struck her down, gets nice treatment, too. I'm sorry, though that GV didn't mention in passing the murder of her brother George by his mistresses back in Canton during the presdiency, and how the McKinleys, who could have exerted influence in the trial, stayed out Mrs. was acquitted, but everyone knew she did it--and the rotten deserved it.
  
  But back to the book, Henry James and John Hay play theleads with Caroline and to a little lesser extent Blaise--the Sanford siblings. It is such a joy to find Adams the cynical intellectual hero, and Hay the diplomat both self-deprecating and unsure that they'd ever done anything of value--while Theodore raves on in the White House, sure that his Rexness has.
  
  I admit, Theordore is one of my favorite presidents (personalty wise) but also deplorable. I cant' even think of anyone to compare him too today. Even his cartoonish boobisness would be a relief today from the moronic bullies and asskissers in the Bush/Obama administrations.
  
  Caroline is always iteresting, strong, and knows what she wants,even she doesn't. I did feel bad for John Apgar Sanford,though, but that's what happens to nice guys.While looking online for information about Helen Hay I ran across a picture of her and her bridesmaids For a few seconds I stared stupidly at the picture and wondered where Caroline was. Oh ,that's right. She's not real!
  
  Empire is GV's most important entry in "Empire." Written in 1987, it certainly reflects the current news machine creating our current reality. William Randolph Hearst created the modern media, but I'm not sure even he, in all his sleaziness, would be amused much by Beck and Rush. The final meeting of Hearst and TR is a brilliant mediation on who and what creates history, and ultimately, what is history?
• 
  Joseph Sciuto

  Never a dull moment in Gore Vidal's novel, "Empire" which takes place mostly in Washington, DC at the turn of the 20th century. For starters, Mr Vidal's characterization of William Randoph Hearst is something to marvel at. At a time where the term, fake news, has become popular, Mr. Hearst's brilliance, lack of morals and willingness to make stuff up to sell newspapers and himself is almost in the same league with President's Trump's ability to write his own narrative with little or no facts. Mr. Hearst's ability to do all this is because his super rich mother gives him all the money he wants. She is the money behind all the newspapers that he owns, and whether she actually knows what he is doing with his newspapers is never outlined in the book. The power of the press, as described by Mr. Vidal, is all consuming and as powerful as the Presidency of the United States.
  
  Mr. Hearst is just one character in this book, whereas the characterization of President Theodore Roosevelt is almost cartoonist and an insult to my intelligence. T.R. was very likely the smartest President in the history of our country. He read on the average two books a day, wrote numerous novels, was an expert on numerous subjects, and above all else he was one of the first Presidents to break-up cooperate monopolies and trusts in the U.S. In Mr. Vidal's version of the man, he is a war monger, empire builder, loud and boisterous and whose accomplishments don't add up to much, such as the successful negotiations by Secretary of State Hay to end the Russian and Japanese war, the building of the Panama Canal, and the building up of our military and especially our navy are minor accomplishments in the grand scale of things.
  
  "Empire," despite the depiction of President Roosevelt is a compelling narrative and its depiction of Washington, DC, and its underbelly of corruption is mesmerizing, and the depictions of historical figures such as Lincoln, President McKinley, Henry Adams, Sec. John Hays, and Henry James are masterful.
  
  Vidal is a treasure, even if I don't agree with his depiction of President Roosevelt.
• 
  Victoriakor

  Великолепная нескучная книга об американской истории и политики. В реальные исторические события вплетена придуманная история, причём отличить реальность от выдумки практически невозможно. Место действия (в основном) - Вашингтон, но не тот формальный и несколько обезличенный современный вариант, а весьма сельский и дружелюбный. В Белом доме при президенте Маккинли уже есть телефон, но очень тесно, грязные оранжереи занимают массу места, на полу страшный ковёр. При президенте Теодоре Рузвельте формируется Западное крыло, Белый дом красиво декорируется и расширяется. Одна из основных линий романа - женщина, которая решает купить газету и конкурировать с Херстом. А это 1900-1904 годы, когда подобное, с одной стороны, немыслимо, с другой стороны - есть приятельница родителей Видала, которая а) послужила прототипом Графини Оленской в «Веке невинности», б) успешно занималась издательским бизнесом. И да, без славного города Ньюпорт, штат Род Айленд (был в «Веке невинности») тоже дело не обошлось.
• 
  Larry Bassett

  I am listening to the Gore Vidal series of historical novels out of order. If you have a choice I wouldn’t discourage you from doing it in the proper historic arrangement since the characters in one book do occasionally carryover to the next. In the case of this book one of the main characters is John Hay who is well known as the assistant to Abraham Lincoln. After that prominent role he went on in politics and in this book is the close associate of President McKinley and Roosevelt. He spent most of this book slowly dying but being one of the powers behind the throne. He finally died in 1905.
  
  The title of this book Empire comes from the fact that between 1890 and 1910 the United States attempted to pick up the mantle of Great Britain as the major power in the world. The presidents were McKinley who ended with a bullet in his chest from an assassin and Theodore Roosevelt who began with a historic charge up a hill in Cuba.
  
  I would probably be glad to give this book 4 stars rather than three if I enjoyed reading about this era of history more. The author does his usually fine job about taking us behind the closed doors of history and making us all wonder how accurate he really is. He talks a lot about the high society of this era which was also a part of the politics of Washington at the turn of the century. People are rich and women are quietly at work mostly off stage. But of course a Gore Vidal book always includes startling women and his special way of presenting them. He also manages to include a bit of homosexuality which is certainly not part of history in that era that you will read about in your average history book. Just a touch of course.
  
  As I am reviewing this book I am beginning to feel a little guilty about leaving it at three stars. I just might come back later and change it. But now I am going to move onto yet another book in this I believe six book series which I will easily highly recommend as a series You should have on your reading list. As you are reading one don’t be surprised if you find yourself looking forward to the next one. And since I am not reading them in order, I am simultaneously wondering what will happen next as well as when will it be?
• 
  Louise

  It's difficult to rate this novel as it was terribly uneven. The first chapter was simply awful. The overarching story of America during a turbulent period of growth, on the other hand, was fascinating. I enjoyed the more personal subplot of Caroline and Blaise, rival half-siblings from France. There was a huge cast of characters, many of whom were real people; characters walked in and out of the plot, some recurring, others not. Conversations could last for pages while significant events such as a death were wrapped up within 2 or three pages. Theodore Roosevelt, young, loud, imperialistic and brashly self-confidant, stood as a symbol of America itself at the time. The novel wrapped up with a confrontation between Roosevelt and newspaper tycoon Hearst. This was not as dramatic as it might have been, as modern readers are all too familiar with the concept of government being hand in pocket with big business.
• 
  Paul Gaya Ochieng Simeon Juma

  Empire explores the politics of expansion. America, England, Russia, France, Germany, and Japan are competing against each other towards the control of Asia. The book started out on a high note with very many characters being introduced in the first thirty or so pages. Even though I was delighted by the historical information, I was disappointed with the drag that was the story. It gets too tiresome. Up until the assassination of President Mckinely, we see nothing much going on. Afterwards, the story changes but briefly before we are back to the old theme of expansion. However, for those interested in Historical details, this is your book.
  Anyway, the novel is based in America, where the leaders there have embraced the concept of civilization. It is perceived as the survival of the most economical system (being the US). Consequently, during the reign of President Mckinely, there was a race between America and Europe to control the coal mines of China. It was believed that whichever power controlled the vast mines will dominate the world.
  Expansion also focuses on the acquisition of more colonies. Also, it was perceived that the more the colonies the more the wealth. Theodore Roosevelt was of this position. American troops was in occupation of the Philippines. President Mckinely had to make a decision whether to annex the territory and extend his reign or to hold the area as a temporary trustee. But, he needed to create an empire and for that to happen, the Philippines had to become a protectorate of the US. Consequently, there was a need to have the public behind him. He needed the support of the senate and for that to happen there had to be a legitimate reason to go to war with the Filipinos. That is where Hearst and his newspapers comes in.
  The rich Mr. Hearst had inherited money from but disliked those other rich men who had inherited theirs. He was a realist who delighted in inventing everything because he wanted to own everything. Through his papers, he was able to invent wars and murders. It is believed that he is responsible for the war between America and Spain.
  
• 
  Christopher Saunders

  Gore Vidal's Empire, another installment in the Narratives of Empire series, advances the story to the turn of the century. America has just won the Spanish-American War and is flexing its muscles as a world power abroad, while Theodore Roosevelt inaugurates a period of progressive reform domestically. Caught in the whirlwind of politics and upheaval are sisters Caroline and Blaise Sanford, who inherit a failing newspaper and turn it into a massively successful tabloid, becoming archrivals to William Randolph Hearst. The Sanford sisters are, of course, descendants of Burr and 1876's Charlie Schuyler; if not nearly as obnoxious, neither are they particularly compelling figures, least of all against Vidal's energetic portraits of historical figures. The other recurring figure from past works is John Hay, once Lincoln's idealistic young secretary, now a weary elder statesman aligned with big business and frustrated at America's increasing adventurisms. Although the novel comes to life occasionally - particularly when the teeth-chomping, madly energetic TR enters the scene - it frequently settles into Vidal's frequent rut of stilted political conversations and arch wit more tiresome than clever. In small doses, this can be charming, but without a compelling story or real insight to drive it, it's just Vidal talking to himself. Middling Vidal, recommended for completists and undemanding readers of historical fiction.
• 
  Jerry Caldwell

  This is the only book I've read by Gore Vidal; some of his other books have pretty good reviews.
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed Gore's portrayal of the United States at the turn of the century, circa 1900. As you read this book you quickly begin to see how Gore views this country; as an Empire that refuses to call itself an Empire. We got there in a unique way, but in the end that is what we were becoming in the early 1900s, and indeed what we became.
  
  I only gave 3 stars, to be honest, because I am comparing Gore to other historical fiction authors as a writer. Gore does a great job of creating characters you can identify with and provides a story you can follow. But I did not find this book to be an exciting, turn-the-page, type of novel. That being the case, I still found this to be an entertaining read that I loved all the way to the end. Gore does a good job of telling his story and bringing it all to a close.
  
  Overall a pretty good read.
• 
  Patrick Sprunger

  If the following excerpt has any meaning for you, you should read Gore Vidal:
  
  [Henry Adams speaking] "(Henry Cabot Lodge) is one of nature's Iagos, always in the shadows, preferring evil to nothing..."
  
  "And nothing to good." (John) Hay made his addition to the indictment. "So if Cabot's Iago, McKinley must be his Othello."
  
  "No, no." Adams was firm. "After all, Othello trusted Iago. I think it most unlikely that our Ohioan Augustus trusts - or even notices - Cabot. No, I see Theodore (Roosevelt) in the part of Othello. They complement each other. Theodore all action and bluster, Cabot all devious calculation. Cabot is the rock on which Theodore will sink."
  
  This is all I have to say on the matter.
• 
  Nuno R.

  Um livro essencial para percebermos onde começa a noção de império, no país mais bem sucedido do mundo. Um livro parcial e militante, narrativo e talvez até revisionista. Revisionista se considerarmos que o que Gore Vidal se propõe, na sua obra é de facto reescrever a história americana. Neste livro, o que Vidal mostra, é que imperialismo ainda não era palavra feia, rejeitada pelos que eram alvos da crítica. Era ideologia que se debatia no congresso americano. E havia os pro-imperialistas e os anti-imperialistas. O que se debatia era qual o papel dos EUA, visto que o império britânico estava em declínio. E os imperialistas claramente diziam que tinha chegado a altura dos Estados Unidos. Foram estes que ganharam o debate e a sua ideologia foi a que prevaleceu.
• 
  Shawn Thrasher

  Towards the end of the book, Gore Vidal's fictionalized Henry Adams says, "The republic is dead; long live the empire" which is a succinct way of summing up the last 100 years of American policy; Vidal fictionally traces the rise of the American Empire and the imperial presidency, especially how the media can create not only a war, but a president as well. History has been far kinder to Theodore Roosevelt (and Taft, too, actually) than Gore Vidal was to them in Empire. The line is also reminds me of something Cicero might have said 2,000 years ago, which I suppose is the point. There is quite a bit going on in this wonderfully, dense, rich books. It's occasionally bitchy, sometimes pointed, and contains a cast of characters, historically based or otherwise, that only occasionally come across as cardboard characters. The sex is in this awful - particularly since it was written in the heyday of Judith Krantz and John Jakes, you'd think Vidal could have spiced it up just a bit; that's certainly when the characters feel like paperdolls in Edwardian dress. But when history is happening, when the Republic is fading, that's when Henry Adams and John Hay and Alice Roosevelt and William Randolph Hearst feel the most alive; to be trite, it's like you were there (or at the very least Gore Vidal). This book probably isn't for everyone (you're going to need at least a partial understanding of American History, or be prepared to wikipedia much) but it's quite good.
• 
  David Haws

  It’s rare for a male writer to fully develop the moral complexity of his female characters, rarer still in a writer of Vidal’s pre-feminist generation. The development of Caroline Sanford is masterful.
  
  So many male writers are satisfied to turn their female characters into objects. I’ve been working on a couple blues pieces (with my acoustic) and have become aware of how universal the problem is in that medium—poor, African American, male songwriters in the Delta objectifying the women in their songs. Sometimes the objectification is obvious (“some like ‘em skinny, some like ‘em round, can’t tell the difference turn ‘em upside down”) while other times the woman seems to exist as an example of high-maintenance: the theme of the “hard-hearted woman” whom the song’s narrator thinks he is buying, but in fact is only renting. In contrast there is the theme of the “hard-headed woman” (e.g.; Caldonia; She Caught the Katy) whom the narrator loves “anyway” even though she is unwilling to buy his bullshit, and (the listener suspects) probably because she is unwilling to buy his bullshit. Caroline Sanford fits beautifully into this hard-headed tradition, in spite of her money and alabaster skin.
  
  Every time I read Vidal, I am reminded not just what a great writer he is, but how he chose to develop as an individual. Empire may be the best of Vidal’s Narratives of Empire series.
  
• 
  Steve Cooper

  Vidal juggles characters and historical facts so adeptly that a clear picture emerges of this crucial moment for the nascent American empire.
  
  While the picture is clear however, one must never forget that Vidal shows only one half of it (or maybe 0.01%). If you don’t have money or influence you won’t appear in one of these Narratives of Empire novels. They tell the story of the players: the naughty rich who, according to Vidal and aside from the occasional crazed anarchist , were solely responsible for directing events.
  
  In this rarefied, privileged environment the question of whether or not America would choose empire over republic (or at least over an oligarchy that minded its own business) was always a foregone conclusion. Fits of scruple might percolate up among the riff-raff from time to time, but at the end of the day someone was going to rape China and it might as well be America.
  
  I’m not saying Vidal might not have sympathized with the anti-empire argument, but this story is written from the perspective of hardcore realism with no time for soft-headed idealism.
  
  Now over 100 years later we see what becomes of an empire with no time for soft-headed idealism.
• 
  Eric Huettenmueller

  Awesome look at Hearst and the dirty operation he ran. Vidal is amazing in every word!
• 
  Bruno

  Following Vidal’s trend on his Narratives of Empire books, this 4th entry if full of incredible detail and lively characters. But, in comparison to the amazing ‘Burr’ and ‘Lincoln’, and perhaps because American history starts to lack the same larger than life figures, ‘Empire’ is less focused on particular events and breezes through the timeline in simpler terms. America is by this point fully transformed into something very different from the time of its foundation or the Civil War periods - and closer to what we now recognize as the Republic.
  Still masterfully written, it is only in comparison to other of his works that my rating is given. Nevertheless a compelling and intelligent reading, one that widens our understanding of American history and its place in the world.
• 
  Phil K

  Gore Vidal wrote 7 novels in his Narratives of Empire series, chronicling various points in history of the American Empire. "Empire" published in 1987 was the 5th written, but comes 4th in the chronological order of history. Fittingly, this was the 4th novel in the series I read.
  
  Unfortunately, this was my least favorite. It was nice to be so familiar with all (or many) of the characters (either from history, from the previous novels in the series, or both). The work covers the approx. 7 year period from 1898-1907. A lot happens during this time, including the rise of Teddy Roosevelt after the Spanish American War, and the further rise of TR following the McKinley administration.
  
  I have a great interest in newspapers, so I was very interested to follow the yellow journalism and newspaper wars involving William Randolph Hearst. I enjoyed how feminist this novel was: the main story follows the granddaughter of (the fictional) Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler. The novel opens with a will contest, and I’m a sucker for a good will contest, so my interest was caught right away.
  
  However, the drama and humor that I enjoyed so much of in the earlier works of the series was not as prominent. And compared to “Lincoln” the events of “Empire” do not seem as important. While “Lincoln” and “1876” focus on a few main events, I felt “Empire” covered too much. I was hoping for a dramatic conclusion or major twist, but was left wanting by how easily the plot glided to a soft conclusion. I thought there would be more to the ‘Hearts’ mystery, but there was practically none. There was some relationship drama, but nothing captivating.
  
  Overall, it was a nice read and I enjoyed it, but in my review, it does not compare favorably with the prior works of the series.
• 
  Erwin Maack

  "John, o que vocês todos desejam é um império, e o que estão construindo é um império, e pensando bem até que está custando bem pouco.
  - E quanto está custando? - Hay sabia, pelo brilho dos olhos de Adams, que a resposta seria altamente desagradável.
  - A república americana. Finalmente vocês acabaram com ela. Para sempre. Como anarquista conservador cristão, eu jamais gostei muito dela. - Adams ergueu sua xícara de chá. - A república morreu, viva o império!
  - Oh, meu Deus. - Hay pousou sua xícara, que trepidou em seu pires enfeitado com um monograma. - Nós temos todas as formas de uma república. Não é isso que importa? Por que outra razão eu estaria agora atravessando o Ohio, ou seja lá que estado for, para fazer um discurso e convencer as pessoas a darem o seu voto?
  - Nós só deixamos as pessoas darem os seus votos para elas se sentirem necessárias. Mas quanto mais ampliamos, teoricamente, a democracia, mais ela fica sem gás. - Imitando Clarence King, Adams agora gostava de usar expressões de linguagem comum, acompanhadas de um aceno malicioso da cabeça, como se fosse um trabalhador irlandês de Boston.
  - Isso não me faz chorar - disse Hay.
  Ele já fizer sua escolha muitos a nos antes. Os melhores governantes de uma república - ou como quer que se descrevesse os Estados Unidos - eram os proprietários responsáveis. Já que a maioria dos proprietários tendia, pelo menos na primeira geração, a um comportamento criminoso, era necessário que os poucos patriotas desprendidos esperassem uma ou duas gerações e depois escolhessem um deles, que tivesse um estilo comum - ou seria imperial? - para transformá-lo em presidente". (página 473)
• 
  Bamboozlepig

  DNF. I've tried over the years to read Vidal's work, thinking each time maybe THIS would be the time I'd be able to get into him. But each time the overwhelmingly boring writing style deterred me. I decided to give ol' Vidal another shot because out of all his books, this one is the one that sounded most intriguing.
  
  And I was wrong. Too many characters drowned the storyline from the start. I had a hard time keeping track of them all and why they were essential to the plot at that point. Vidal likes to go off on dry, windy asides that info dump a character's background on you, then he expects you to be able to pick up the current narrative after two and a half pages of "historical character's" back history. His sentences wander on overlong and the dialogue was often fairly arch and too full of itself. Vidal likes to use a lot of pretty wordies but those pretty wordies fail to move the plot along.
  
  The final clincher for me was the bit about the cook not knowing what corn was or how to cook it. How can you become a cook and not know what corn is? It's pretty much a staple of dinner. She also didn't know what watermelon was and cooked it as well. Again, how can you NOT know what watermelon is or how to prepare it? It wasn't like this was set back in ancient times, this was set in the gilded age and both corn and watermelon had been around forever. I don't know if that was Vidal's attempt to insert some humor into the book or what, but I found it annoying instead of funny.
• 
  C. Scott

  I have to apologize to Gore Vidal... I got about 250 pages in, let's say halfway through, and I had to tap out. I give up. I cannot hang.
  
  I got that sinking feeling about 25 pages in that I had made a terrible book selection. Chapter 1 was a nightmare - a modern day reimagining of Victorian drawing room literature. Deadly boring. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 were not much better.
  
  The characters were dull. The intrigue not at all intriguing. As he did with Lincoln, Vidal gives us outside views of the biggest characters of the day: Teddy Roosevelt and Willliam Randolph Hearst. The worst part, these dynamic interesting characters are kept off to the side. They drive much of the action but we are kept away from them. Instead, we get boring, old John Hay and fictional Caroline and Blaise Sanford. Oh, I'm sorry, did you fall asleep whilst reading that? You get the idea.
  
  I know there was an assassination just around the corner but I wasn't interested enough to hang around. Best part? Whenever William McKinley's epileptic wife went into seizure he would quietly place a hanky over her face and continue talking as if nothing was amiss. What an image! I'll never forget that. The rest of the book - eminently forgettable.