While America struggles to define its destiny, beautiful and ambitious
Caroline Sanford fights to control her own fate. One of Vidal's most
inspired creations, she is an embodiment of the complex, vigorous young
nation. From the back offices of her Washington newspaper, Caroline
confronts the two men who threaten to thwart her ambition: William
Randolph Hearst and his protégé, Blaise Sanford, Caroline's half
brother. In their struggles for power the lives of brother and sister
become intertwined with those of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, as
well as Astors, Vanderbilts, and Whitneys--all incarnations of America's
Gilded Age.
"Mr. Vidal demonstrates a political imagination and insider's sagacity
equaled by no other practicing fiction writer. Like the earlier novels
in his historical cycle, Empire is a wonderfully vivid documentary
drama." -- The New York Times Book Review