My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
1780 Morristown, New Jersey. On a cold winter day “and in the darkest hour of the war,” Eliza carries a letter from her father to General Washington at Ford Mansion. At the bustling headquarters, she meets a young aide-de-camp Alexander Hamilton.
Their attraction is instant. He is torn, because of his background of illegitimacy, not matching her social status. But she accepts him. His manners, intelligence and ambition are what matters to her.
As a wife, she learns how to manage temperamental outbursts of her husband. And she learns from an experienced wife, namely Mrs. Washington. “Sometimes we encourage, sometimes we challenge, and sometimes we manage…”
1783 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Now, a congressman’s wife as Hamilton was “elected to serve as one of New York’s five delegates to the Congress of the Confederation.”
The Treaty of Paris grants America her independence, forcing the British soldier to leave the newly forming lands. With that, the aftermath brings unstable currency, hostility, and the lawlessness. “No sooner had we driven the king from our shores than we seemed intent on proving that we were uncivilized people who couldn’t live without a monarch to keep us from behaving as beasts.”
The confrontation continues with those for or against a strong central government.
When George Washington becomes the first President, Alexander Hamilton becomes the first Secretary of the Treasury.
As Hamilton’s career advances, his private life takes a different turn. He claims it was a set up involving a woman. And now he is blackmailed for adultery.
He “embroiled himself in two affairs of honor in the space of an hour.”
Years later, another duel doesn’t go well for Hamilton.
Told with impeccable prose and smooth dialogue, progressing easily and naturally. The etiquette of ballrooms, rivalry of soldiers, courtly manners and intelligence come alive in this complex story.
Set against the wars for independence and conspiring time to build a new country free of king, with its new laws. It brings a very insightful history lesson, full of ambition, rivalry and love. A very passionate love for creating a new nation.
Above all, this is a story of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. A woman who went through marriage and motherhood, who experienced losing a husband, child and a sister who was also a very close friend and confidante. Her feelings and emotions through all this are movingly depicted.
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