Nevertheless, most of the characters in this novel are nonfiction and historic. Empire, the fourth novel in Gore Vidal’s monumental six-volume chronicle of the American past, is his prodigiously detailed portrait of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century as it begins to emerge as a world power.

is now recognized as one of our greatest modernist writers (Gore Vidal). With their broad canvas and sprawling cast of fictional and historical characters, these novels present a panorama of American politics and imperialism, as interpreted by one of our most. The New York Times Book Review From Booker Prize finalist Patricia Lockwood. In this tome, the descendants of Charles Schuyler, the fictitious main character of Burr and 1876, continue the American saga of empire building. Burr is the first novel in Gore Vidals Narratives of Empire series, which spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to post-World War II. Following the events leading up to and following the ascension of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency following William McKinley's assassination, it includes pithy portraits of such leading public figures of the day as Roosevelt, Hearst, Henry Brooks Adams, Henry James, Secretary of State John Hay and President William McKinley. As with Vidal's other books in his Narratives of Empire series, this novel offers an insight into the journalism of the time, following the exploits of William Randolph Hearst in his efforts to displace Theodore Roosevelt as president in 1904. Playing these characters against real-life figures of the years 1898 to 1907, the novel portrays the conjunction of government and mass media in the creation of modern-day America. The novel concerns the fictional newspaper dynasty of half-sibling characters Caroline and Blaise Sanford. Empire is the fourth historical novel in the Narratives of Empire series by Gore Vidal, published in 1987.

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