QUEEN DOLLEY: A Biographical Novel of the Life and Times of Dolley Madison

by Dorothy Clarke Wilson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 2, 1986

Like the fictional biographies of Jean Plaidy, Wilson's tributes to American ""queens"" (Lady Washington, 1984, etc.) are marked by diligently researched backdrops assembled from an enormous array of mainly secondary sources; and a thin, sentimentalized portrait of the subject, which can, when infused from time to time with rich daubs of contemporary comment from letters, memoirs, etc., springboard into life. Dolley Madison, nee Payne (1768-1849), wife of the ""Architect of the Constitution"" and fourth US President, was quite possibly the city of Washington's first and greatest hostess, who set protocol and tone for generations to follow. She was a young widow with a child when she married James Madison in 1794 Philadelphia. (Wilson has the Quaker-raised Dolley deciding judiciously between dashing Aaron Burr and the ""small, rather insignificant looking"" James. Wilson further speculates that Dolley's marriage-night postscript to a letter--the ""Alas!"" that has titillated Dolley biographers--might reflect her worry about existing in both a Quaker and very secular world.) Amid family events, and a flurry of political to-ing and fro-ing, Dolley first tried her hostessing wings for the widower President Jefferson, when she became noted for her skill in sprightly converse. As First Lady at her lavish ""American"" table, she brought into (temporary) harmony all guests--from political opponents to edgy ambassadors and Indian chiefs. Wilson touches on all of Dolley's coups: rescuing Stuart's portrait of Washington just before the British marched to torch the President's House in 1814; presiding over the initial Easter egg roll; and sending the second message on Mr. Morse's telegraph (a chatty hello to a relative). There are several contemporary accounts of the Madisons at home, including that marital sketch by Washington Irving: ""A fine, portly, buxom dame, who has a Smile and a pleasant word for everybody. He--ah, poor Jemmy!--he is but a withered applejohn."" Alas. A hardly searching, but diffusely informative, and incidentally entertaining portrait of our First Hostess with the Mostest.

Pub Date: Jan. 2, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1986

Categories: FICTION