Empire (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Gore Vidal
- First Published: 1987
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Journalism or journalists, Power, personal or social, Politics, Government, Conquest, 1900’s
- Locales: France, New York, St. Louis, MO, Philadelphia, PA, England, Washington, D.C., New Hampshire, Newport, RI
Empire opens in 1898, just as the Spanish-American War ends. Charles Schuyler, the engaging young narrator of Burr, is dead, but his granddaughter, Caroline Sanford, is the protagonist of this book. Her half brother, Blaise Sanford, works for publisher William Randolph Hearst, and Caroline defies the Victorian era gender code and buys her own newspaper, in Washington, D.C. She copies Hearst's style of yellow journalism, featuring murders on the front page of her newspaper, preferably of beautiful half-naked young women. Blaise later joins her as part owner of the...
[The entire page is 595 words long]
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