It's the first novel I've read by Gore Vidal; an enthralling alternative view for Hamilton fans. History is truly a network of stories told from different points of view. Great fun!

"Although Americans justify their self-interest in moral terms, their true interest is never itself moral. Yet, paradoxically, only Americans - a few, that is- ever try to be moral in politics." -- Gore VidalVidal takes full responsibility for his perjury. Okay he only admits to errors and anachronisms, but sides himself with Richard Nixon in the process. Burr is a wonderful tale, finding delight in skewering the reputations of the Founding Fathers and all the hypocrisy which didn't make its way...

Re-reading actually. I loved this tale of our hapless 2nd Vice President so much I named my youngest son after him. I love Gore Vidal's writing and have read so many of his wonderful historical novels, bursting with history and personality. Possibly my all time favorite writer, though he has only written one scifi story.I admire Aaron Burr more and more as I see how the insanity that is American politics continues to appall and astound. But it reminds me also of just how flawed and human were ou...

Near the beginning of Burr by Gore Vidal, Aaron Burr is narrating his life & times to Charles Schuyler & suggests that he "has a lingering desire to tell the true story of the Revolution before it is too late." Beyond that & while speaking of himself, Burr declares: "he is a labyrinth". Most are familiar with "The Duel" that had Aaron Burr strike down Alexander Hamilton with whom he'd had a long-running feud, establishing Burr as an arch-villain within the shadows of American history but the est...

Oh my, this was brilliant and entertaining. I needed to know about Aaron Burr and the history of our nation, and this was a riveting expose of the people, the petty politics, the smells and sins of our nation’s creators. It was also my first by Vidal, and will read many more if I have that much time. The plot was of the type that works well for me, a young man on a mysterious journey to uncover the enigmatic (and magnetic) statesman who was nearly president. Burr’s intellect and talent for gover...

Gore Vidal may have been one of the most knowledgeable and well-read Americans of the second half of the 20th Century. He probably could have been a famous actor, politician, humorist, or screenwriter. He flirted with all those careers but for our benefit he became a novelist.Burr rings with the kind of truth that can only be found in fiction. We are not to believe all we read here, for it is a novel, but we should be aware of Vidal's reputation for painstaking research.Washington, Jefferson, Mo...

I knew next to nothing about US history when I began reading Gore Vidal's Burr. So, I was, and still am, in no position to assess the historical accuracy of the numerous events recorded in his fictional biography of Colonel Aaron Burr (1756-1836).During the American Revolutionary War, Aaron Burr was involved in an expedition to attack the British forces in Quebec. Although this was not a success, it was during this campaign that Burr became known a military hero. He rubbed shoulders with George

So boring it puts me to sleep every time I try to read it. I’m done.

”In the half-light of the cemetery, Burr did resemble the devil--assuming that the devil is no more than five foot six (an inch shorter than I), slender, with tiny feet (hooves?), high forehead (in the fading light I imagine vestigial horns), bald in front with hair piled high on his head, powdered absently in the old style, and held in place with a shell comb. Behind him is a monument to the man he murdered.” Aaron BurrAaron Burr is, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating figures in Am...

I once read that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the erstwhile presidential candidate, said that once upon a time she had been a Democrat, even working for the election of Jimmy Carter. However, while riding on a train one day, she experienced a political conversion while reading Gore Vidal’s novel, "Burr." According to Rep. Bachmann, she became so upset with the way Vidal depicted our Founding Fathers – mocking them, she said – that she dropped the book onto her lap and said to herself, “I must b...

- Oh, Gore Vidal? I thought he was a hairdresser.- No, that's Vidal Sassoon.- That sounds wrong. Vidal Sassoon was a poet. I think he drove an ambulance and collected arms and legs.- You're thinking of Siegfried Sassoon. Actually, I may have mixed him up with Wagner. Didn't he marry someone called Siegfried? Is that a woman's name in Germany? Doesn't sound like one. - Oh yes, I remember now, Wagner was one of the top Nazis. He was the guy who parachuted into England to assassinate Churchill but

'Burr' is the lead novel in Gore Vidal's seven-book series on U.S. history. It's not the first book he wrote in the series, but in terms of historical chronology, everything begins right here. If you've never read Vidal, there are other places you might want to begin ('Julian' is a marvelous novel, as is 'Messiah.' You can't really go wrong with Gore.) But if you're a fan of history and turned off by textbook drudgery (and occasional misinformation), 'Burr' opens one writer's look at American hi...

I enjoyed 'Julian' which was written by Vidal about the most consequential of the last Roman emperors. I wholeheartedly loved Vidal’s non-fiction compilation 'Essays on America' that won the Pulitzer and displayed the wit and precision of arguably the best essayist of our modern era. However I did not love 'Burr' the novel nearly as much. 'Burr', published in 1973, was a very popular historical fictional novel. Aaron Burr, the central character, was a minor revolutionary hero, first rate politic...

What I knew about Aaron Burr was that in a duel he shot and killed Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury and pictured on the $10 bill. That is a pitiful amount of knowledge and if I had ever been told more about Burr, it is in that part of the brain marked "irretrievable." For pete's sake, Elizabeth, Burr was Vice President of the United States. Further, the electoral votes in the 1800 election were tied between Jefferson and Burr and the election was decided by the House of Repres...

In the first of his “Narratives of Empire” novels, Gore Vidal tackles Aaron Burr, the disgraced Vice President remembered for killing Alexander Hamilton and plotting to sever the western United States into an independent kingdom. He frames Burr’s story through a hoary narrative conceit, with hack journalist Charlie Schuyler (not, Vidal assures us, of the Hamilton-related Schuylers) befriending an antiquated Burr in 1830s New York, hoping to coax from him his life story. Namely, whether or not he...

A great read for rendering a satirical and jaundiced view of the Founding Fathers, with a focus on Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson. Vidal portrays Burr in third person from the perspective of an invented biographer interviewing his subject as an old man in the 1830's while inserting many long sections in first person from fictional memoirs. We get a nice account of Burr's role in Benedict Arnold's heroic Revolutionary War assault on Quebec City and fuel for a cynical vision of Washington as

Gore Vidal has long been a “name” whose work I didn’t really know. He seemed almost more famous for being famous than for any particular thing he’d written. So, when this one cropped up on sale, I figured I’d give it a shot.As a concept, I love this book. A young man and partisan of Aaron Burr is hired to write a scandalous hit-job on Martin Van Buren by claiming that the Presidential candidate is actually the son of the disgraced old man. The result is a novel told back-and-forth between a pres...

Another found, another to read again. At twenty-one, I would have been spellbound by the drama surrounding Burr, and romanticized the era, being Canadian. Now with greater background and considerably more years beneath me, Burr by Gore Vidal would be a much different experience.

There has been no greater shadow in American History, no greater enigma than the US's 3rd Vice President, almost President, and near King of Louisiana, Aaron Burr. Mostly known for killing Fmr. Treasury Secretary and opposition party leader, Alexander Hamilton, Burr is also known, less so, for invading Louisiana shortly after it was purchased by the US, getting caught, tried for treason and beating every charge easily. This ficticious look at Burr's history is a dramatic telling of the absurdity...

Aaron Burr is perhaps the most contentious of all American politicians. A contemporary of the founding fathers and a mover and shaker in the first years of the union, his name is now a byword for betrayal and devilry due to killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel and being brought to trial for suspected treason. Who better than to re-tell history with Burr as the hero but Gore Vidal? This is the fifth of the seven Narratives of Empire series that I have read and the first in the series chronologica...