Democracy: An American Novel is one of the first novels about political power and how to get it, how to use it, and how to abuse it. When it was published anonymously in 1880 speculation had it that it was a joint effort of Clarence King, Henry Adams, John Hay and their spouses, a group who lived side by side in Washington a stone’s throw from the White House and sometimes referred to as “the Five of Hearts”. Only after Henry Adams’ passing in 1918 did the public learn that he was the author.

The book centers on Madeleine Lee, a wealthy New York widow attracted to power who moves to Washington and establishes a popular salon in the eye of the storm.   She is courted by two suitors, one an honorable gentleman, the other an ambitious and conniving politician who ends up in the president’s cabinet. The president, an amalgam of Johnson, Grant and Garfield, is incompetent and corrupt. Intrigues, machinations, and deceit abound.  Along the way we hear the prevailing views on political topics of the times – suffrage, communism, Darwinism, and the destiny of the republic. The book was the source for Democracy: An American Comedy, an opera which premiered in Washington in 2005.  The book is easily seen as an influence on Empire series of political novels by Gore Vidal and seems surprising contemporary in the present day.