Empire

About this book

In this extraordinarily powerful epic Gore Vidal re-creates America's Gilded Age -- a period of promise and possibility, of empire-building and fierce political rivalries. While America struggles to define its destiny, beautiful and ambitious Caroline Sanford fights to control her own fate. One of Vidal's most inspired creations, she is an embodiment of the complex, vigorous young nation. From the back offices of her Washington newspaper, Caroline confronts the two men who threaten to thwart her ambition: William Randolph Hearst and his protege, Blaise Sanford, Caroline's half brother. The fortunes of this sister and brother intertwine with the fates of the generation, their country, and some of the greatest names of their day, including President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryant, William and Henry James, the Astors, the Vanderbilts, and the Whitneys. Gore Vidal sweeps us from the nineteenth century into the twentieth, from the salvaged republic of Lincoln to a nation boldly reaching for the world. A stunning and brilliantly imagined portrait of turn-of-the-century America.