It is notable in a novel on American Democracy to find no character who is not rich, or politically powerful, or both; and without the manners of riches, the secondary characters are figures of fun. All right, this was written in the 1870s and The Education of Henry Adams was not strong for the simple nobility of toil. He makes just as much fun of rich faineants and toadies. Another quarter of the charm is a story suitable to or - widow seeks right use of powers, is nearly seduced by worldly evil. A full half of the charm is the epigrammmatic, affectionate style in which Adams lays out and lays into his characters; he is neither as theoretical as James nor as theatrical as Wharton.
The meat of the plot is corruption in the US Government, and how much that corruption is tolerable or forgivable; and of course this provides quotations reusable today:
"I do much regret that I have not yet one hundred years to live. [...]the United States will them be more corrupt than Rome under Caligula; more corrupt than the Church under Leo X.; more corrupt than France under the Regent!"
It's money that turns out to drive corruption, but the first attempt at justification is always given as party strength; the Civil War, and the faction and desperation of its beginnings, is usually in the background of appeals to the importance of party.
As he wisely said, the issue now involved was not one of principle but of power. The fate of that noble party to which they all belonged, and which had a record that could never be forgotten, depended on their letting principle alone. Their principle must be the want of principles.
"At the time this affair occurred, I was a Senator of the United States. I was also a trusted member of a great political party which I looked upon as identical with the nation."
The main character is a little like Isabel Archer but, fortunately for her sake, a lot more like Madame Max Goesler; she's looking for something good to do with her strength and money, which makes her susceptible to a clever plotter in (re Adams) a particularly feminine way:
She could not be induced to love Ratcliffe, but she might be deluded into sacrificing herself for him. [...]She had a woman's natural tendency towards asceticism, self-extinction, self-abnegation. All through life she had made painful efforts to understand and follow out her duty.
For the sake of illustrated frontispieces (none in my copy, alas), the crisis of decision begins at a tremendously fancy diplomatic ball, at which every one [...] hastened to show this august couple the respect which all republicans who have a large income derived from business, feel for English royalty.
That is, a great deal of respect, signified by clothes even more costly than one would wear for the President of the U.S.
Mrs. Lee held this kind of court-service in contempt [...] her only serious complaint of the President and his wife was that they undertook to have a court and to ape monarchy.
Some of the nicest character drawing is in the heroine's kind, conventional sister, who realizes that something is wrong and badgers cleverer people until they overcome their principles, trade some facts, and straighten out. Nor is this done to browbeat the intellectual for their foolishness. I thought it was a good picture of family and friends helping one another.
URI: Gutenberg file #2815
Adams, Henry. Democracy.. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, Inc.
So wrote clew in Fiction (19th c.). | TrackBack