Quotes from book
Democracy: An American Novel

Democracy: An American Novel

Democracy: An American Novel is a political novel written by Henry Brooks Adams and published anonymously in 1880. Only after the writer's death in 1918 did his publisher reveal Adams's authorship although, upon publication, the novel had immediately become popular. Contemporaneous conjecture placed the book under the joint authorship of Clarence King, John Hay and Henry Adams and their spouses who lived side by side on H street in Washington, D.C. and were collectively sometimes called "the Five of Hearts."


Henry Adams photo
Henry Adams photo
Henry Adams photo

“I have got so far as to lose the distinction between right and wrong. Isn't that the first step in politics?”

Madeleine Lee in Ch. VIII
Democracy: An American Novel (1880)

Henry Adams photo

“She regarded men as creatures made for women to dispose of.”

About Madeleine, in Ch. XI
Democracy: An American Novel (1880)

Henry Adams photo
Henry Adams photo
Henry Adams photo

“For reasons which many persons thought ridiculous, Mrs. Lightfoot Lee decided to pass the winter in Washington.”

Source: Democracy: An American Novel (1880), Ch. I, first lines
Context: For reasons which many persons thought ridiculous, Mrs. Lightfoot Lee decided to pass the winter in Washington. She was in excellent health, but she said that the climate would do her good.

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