1876

Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler returns to the United States after more than thirty years in Europe, accompanied by his widowed daughter Emma and the remains of a fortune damaged by the Panic of 1873. To restore their position, Charles returns to journalism while Emma enters the marriage market of New York society. Their search for money and influence takes them through the centennial celebrations, the corruption surrounding Ulysses S. Grant’s administration and the political salons of New York and Washington.

Written as Charles’s journal, the novel builds towards the disputed presidential election between Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes. Vidal places the private bargains of the Schuyler and Sanford families beside the unresolved legacy of Reconstruction, the shock of the Battle of Little Bighorn and the manoeuvring that determines who will occupy the White House. The result is a satirical portrait of a republic celebrating its first century while money, newspapers, party machines and electoral calculation expose how fragile its democratic claims have become.