On the last, cold Sunday of February 1859, Daniel Sickles shot his
wife's lover in Washington's Lafayette Square, just across from the
White House...this is the story of that killing and its repercussions.
Thomas Keneally brilliantly recreates an extraordinary period, when
women were punished for violating codes of society that did not bind
men. And the caddish, good-looking Dan Sickles personifies the extremes
of the era: as a womaniser, he introduced his favourite madam to Queen
Victoria while his wife stayed at home; as minister to Spain, he began
an affair with the queen while courting one of her ladies in waiting;
and in his later years, he installed his housekeeper as his mistress
while his second wife took up residence nearby.
The brio with which Thomas Keneally tells the tale is equal to the pace
and bravado of Sickles' life. But, more than this, American Scoundrel is
the lens through which the reader can view history at a time when
America was being torn apart.
"A great piece of storytelling" --Guardian
"A fascinating book...informative and entertaining" --Daily Telegraph
"This has a thriller-ish propulsion...a highly readable book" --Sunday
Express
