PRIDE AND PLEASURE

The American Revolution and its aftermath as experienced by the siblings made famous in Hamilton.

The many people who saw Lin-Manuel Miranda’s mega-popular musical may be surprised to learn in this atmospheric account that, far from introducing Alexander Hamilton to her sister Eliza, Angelica Schuyler first met him at their wedding and that she herself was married. Brother- and sister-in-law did indeed develop a flirtatious, increasingly intense relationship, and Vail drops one tantalizing hint that it may have turned physical, but she also leaves no doubt that Hamilton’s primary devotion was always to Eliza, portrayed here as a smart, blunt woman with more integrity than her glamorous older sister (whom the author doesn’t seem to much like). Vail pays equally shrewd attention to character and circumstances as she traces the lives of Philip and Catharine Schuyler’s two eldest daughters through the birth of the United States and the decades that followed. Other siblings and relatives also take turns in a crowded but highly readable text stuffed with delightfully gossipy character sketches (“stout, party-loving Henry Knox, and his equally substantial and jolly wife, Lucy”) and savory descriptions of clothing and food. Hamilton comes across as ambitious and driven, greatly needing the support of his calmer, more sensible wife. The financial wheelings and dealings of Angelica’s husband, John Church, offer a case study in the wide-open nature of the late colonial and post-independence American economy, which Hamilton sought to strengthen in measures highly unpopular with his state-rights-oriented opponents. His death in a duel with Aaron Burr left Eliza with crippling debts, and the book’s final 100-plus pages, which chronicle her 50 years as a widow, show a tough, resourceful woman determined to provide for her children and honor her husband’s memory. Meanwhile, Angelica’s husband goes bankrupt, and the sisters come to realize that the privileged world they grew up in is gone.

An engaging blend of perceptive biography and vivid narrative history.