4 stars for My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie.
This is one novel which I thought I will never get to finish reading. Even in small print, there are 672 pages, making the paperback so thick and cumbersome that I only want to do my reading at home. It takes me long enough but finish it I did. Finally.
I am rarely excited about reading historical fiction, much less one on America's revolutionary history. Few historical novels interest me, but even so, I am impressed by the two authors and their extensive research and superb writing that brings about the fruition of this book. I feel as if I have relived history, a period from 1777 to 1848, through the eyes of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, the wife of Alexander Hamilton.
What stands out in this book is not Alexander Hamilton to whom the book is titled. Hamilton fought and won a war. He built a federal government. He created a coast guard, a national bank and invented a scheme of taxation that held the states together. He had founded a political party, smashed a rebellion, and put in motion a financial system that was providing prosperity for nearly everyone. Yes, Hamilton did great things and many, but what stands out instead is his wife, Elizabeth Hamilton who was also called Eliza or Betsy. She was a widow far longer than she was a wife. She was someone before she met Alexander. And she was also someone after he died. She was the heroine here.
Having read My Dear Hamilton, I have now a better understanding of the American Revolution fought between 1775 and 1783 in which 13 of Great Britain's North American colonies threw off British rule to establish the sovereign United States of America. This period consisted of victory, conflict, economic and political distress and progress. American's first president, George Washington, was elected in 1789.
I do not deny that this is a great book, but perhaps because I am not into American history, it is not a compelling read for me. For this reason and that alone, I am giving the book a 4-star review.
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication date: 3 Apr 2018
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From the New York Times bestselling authors of America’s First Daughter comes the epic story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton—a revolutionary woman who, like her new nation, struggled to define herself in the wake of war, betrayal, and tragedy. Haunting, moving, and beautifully written, Dray and Kamoie used thousands of letters and original sources to tell Eliza’s story as it’s never been told before—not just as the wronged wife at the center of a political sex scandal—but also as a founding mother who shaped an American legacy in her own right.
A general’s daughter…
Coming of age on the perilous frontier of revolutionary New York, Elizabeth Schuyler champions the fight for independence. And when she meets Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s penniless but passionate aide-de-camp, she’s captivated by the young officer’s charisma and brilliance. They fall in love, despite Hamilton’s bastard birth and the uncertainties of war.
A founding father’s wife...
But the union they create—in their marriage and the new nation—is far from perfect. From glittering inaugural balls to bloody street riots, the Hamiltons are at the center of it all—including the political treachery of America’s first sex scandal, which forces Eliza to struggle through heartbreak and betrayal to find forgiveness.
The last surviving light of the Revolution…
When a duel destroys Eliza’s hard-won peace, the grieving widow fights her husband’s enemies to preserve Alexander’s legacy. But long-buried secrets threaten everything Eliza believes about her marriage and her own legacy. Questioning her tireless devotion to the man and country that have broken her heart, she’s left with one last battle—to understand the flawed man she married and the imperfect union he could never have created without her…
*Blurb from Goodreads*
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