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"...a gripping narrative that offers a revelatory perspective on the combined origins of two nations...compelling drama and instructive history." â?? Wall Street Journal
In a narrative both panoramic and intimate, Tom Chaffin captures the four-decade friendship of Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette.
Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette shared a singularly extraordinary friendship, one involved in the making of two revolutionsâ??and two nations. Jefferson first met Lafayette in 1781, when the young French-born general was dispatched to Virginia to assist Jefferson, then the state's governor, in fighting off the British. The charismatic Lafayette, hungry for glory, could not have seemed more different from Jefferson, the reserved statesman. But when Jefferson, a newly-appointed diplomat, moved to Paris three years later, speaking little French and in need of a partner, their friendship began in earnest.
As Lafayette opened doors in Paris and Versailles for Jefferson, so too did the Virginian stand by Lafayette as the Frenchman became inexorably drawn into the maelstrom of his country's revolution. Jefferson counseled Lafayette as he drafted The Declaration of the Rights of Man and remained a firm supporter of the French Revolution, even after he returned to America in 1789. By 1792, however, the upheaval had rendered Lafayette a man without a country, locked away in a succession of Austrian and Prussian prisons. The burden fell on Jefferson and Lafayette's other friends to win his release. The two would not see each other again until 1824, in a powerful and emotional reunion at Jefferson's Monticello.
Steeped in primary sources, Revolutionary Brothers casts fresh light on this remarkable, often complicated, friendship of two extraordinary men.
"Revolutionary Brothers is a compelling narrative of an epicâ??and unlikelyâ??friendship from the Enlightenment era, enlivened by bracing plot-turns and vividly-drawn characters."â??Walter S. Isaacson, bestselling author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Li
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(3.63)
2
Sure, Jefferson and Lafayette worked together some in Paris and communicated over decades. But I didn't get the sense that they were as close as, say, Jefferson and John Adams (not withstanding their falling out for some years). They hardly saw each other on American soil and for the years they were both in France, there didn't seem to be a great deal of time spent with each other. No doubt they had great respect and admiration for each other, but I never got the feeling like they were "brothers."
I far more enjoyed the first third of the book—the part that takes place in America during the Revolution. Once Jefferson arrives in France, things bogged down quite a bit for me. This is more a reflection of my ignorance of French pronunciation and geography than that of the author's skill and research.
I did like the book's frequent breaks and relatively small chapters. As unacademic as that is, the writing was not. The style was not much to my liking. And don't get me started on the author's overuse of parenthetical phrases.
That said, "Revolutionary Brothers" does offer some excellent insight into the minds of both protagonists, much of which I'd not encountered before. (