Washington D.C: A novel

About this book

With a New Introduction Washington D.C. is the final installment in Gore Vidals Narratives of Empire his acclaimed six-volume series of historical novels about the American past. It offers an illuminating portrait of our republic from the time of the New Deal to the McCar-thy era. Widely regarded as Vidals ultimate comment on how the American political system degrades those who participate in it Washington D.C. is a stunning tale of corruption and diseased ambitions. It traces the fortunes of James Burden Day a powerful conservative senator who is eyeing the presidency; Clay Overbury a pragmatic young congressional aide with political aspirations of his own; and Blaise Sanford a ruthless newspaper tycoon who understands the importance of money and image in modern politics. With characteristic wit and insight Vidal chronicles life in the nations capital at a time when these men and others transformed America into "possibly the last empire on earth." "Washington D.C. may well be the finest of contemporary novels about the capital " said The New Yorker and the Times Literary Supplement deemed it "a prodigiously skilled and clever performance." From the Hardcover edition.