1876 | 1876

At a glance:

Author: Gore Vidal
First Published: 1976
Type of Plot: Historical chronicle
Time of Work: 1875-1877
Setting: New York City and Washington, D.C.
Principal Characters: Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, Emma, John Day Apgar, James Bennett, William Cullen Bryant, Charles Nordhoff, William Sanford, Denise Sanford, Roscoe Conkling, James G. Blaine, President Ulysses S. Grant, Samuel Tilden, John Bigelow, James Garfield
Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
Subjects: New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Power, personal or social, Politics, Nineteenth century, New York City, Washington, D.C., Historians, Elections, Politicians
Locales: New York, NY, Washington, D.C.

1876 is written in the form of a journal that Charles Schuyler is keeping for himself. After a more than thirty-year absence, he is returning with his daughter to the United States, which is on the eve of its centennial year. The panic of 1873 (a monetary crisis initiated by the passage in that year of the Silver Act, which ended the coinage of silver and thus reduced the amount of currency in circulation) has wiped out his capital, and he is forced to solicit journalistic assignments and to secure a wealthy husband for his widowed daughter. His main aim is to...

1876 | 1876

At a glance:

The Novel

Join eNotes