First Family

Abigail & John Adams

De: Joseph J. Ellis

Narrado por: Kimberly Farr

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of Founding Brothers and His Excellency brings America’s preeminent first couple to life in a moving and illuminating narrative that sweeps through the American Revolution and the republic’s tenuous early years.

John and Abigail Adams left an indelible and remarkably preserved portrait of their lives together in their personal correspondence: Both Adamses were prolific letter writers (although John conceded that Abigail was clearly the more gifted of the two), and over the years they exchanged more than 12,000 letters. Joseph J. Ellis distills this unprecedented and unsurpassed record to give us an account both intimate and panoramic; part biography, part political history, and part love story.

Ellis describes the first meeting between the two as inauspicious - John was24, Abigail just 15, and each was entirely unimpressed with the other. But they soon began a passionate correspondence that resulted in their marriage five years later.

Over the next decades, the couple were separated nearly as much as they were together. John’s political career took him first to Philadelphia, where he became the boldest advocate for the measures that would lead to the Declaration of Independence. Yet in order to attend the Second Continental Congress, he left his wife and children in the middle of the war zone that had by then engulfed Massachusetts. Later he was sent to Paris, where he served as a minister to the court of France alongside Benjamin Franklin. These years apart stressed the Adamses’ union almost beyond what it could bear: Abigail grew lonely, while the Adams children suffered from their father’s absence.

John was elected the nation’s first vice president, but by the time of his reelection, Abigail’s health prevented her from joining him in Philadelphia, the interim capital. She no doubt had further reservations about moving to the swamp on the Potomac when John became president, although this time he persuaded her. President Adams inherited a weak and bitterly divided country from George Washington. The political situation was perilous at best, and he needed his closest advisor by his side: “I can do nothing", John told Abigail after his election, “without you”.

In Ellis’s rich and striking new history, John and Abigail’s relationship unfolds in the context of America’s birth as a nation.

©2010 Joseph J. Ellis (P)2010 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Ellis gives 'the premier husband-wife team in all American history' starring roles in an engrossing romance.... Ellis's supple prose and keen psychological insight give a vivid sense of the human drama behind history's upheavals." ( Publishers Weekly)

Fascinating glimpse into the past...

They had a long marriage, a fruitful partnership, and an an amazing love story. Their letters are truly a treasure, a time capsule worth visiting..

Well done

Any additional comments?

Anyone who wants to read an excellent historical biography should read one written by Joseph Ellis.

Captivating

This was a captivating book, at once capturing the romance between John Adams and his wife, Abigail. It also revealed the story of our nation's founding with depth, detail, and candor. A great read!

"Real History"

I wanted to find out more about Abigail Adams and in the process found out so much more about the times in which she lived, her character, her contribution to the founding of our country, and of course, her relationship to her husband. This book has inspired me to listen to more about our founding fathers and their lives that I am now searching for other books of the people mentioned in the book such as Franklin, Hamilton, Jay, Washington, et al. The best part of the book however, was that it showed all these people as humans and the struggles, risks, loves, foibles, and especially politics - that surprisingly, were no different from our political traumas of today. To think that Franklin's home in Paris had a spy on his staff was astounding. It's a GREAT listen with wonderful narration. It's now one of my favorites and have listened to it over and over to pick up more and more.

Such a beautiful love story!

Such a Beautiful story woven into a truly historic time. It took them all .

The story of John Adams

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it was very detailed and helped me learn a little more about John Adams.

Have you listened to any of Kimberly Farr’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

nO

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, Some areas were a little slow so that would have been hard.

Not deep, but nice

A good read (listen, rather), not a masterwork, but I enjoyed it. The narrator was a little dramatic, but at least not boring or annoying.

Brilliant Storytelling!!

A wonderfully written story about the first family through the letters of John Adams and Abigail Smith, Adams weaved historical facts, and other shared tidbits. This has been an in-depth storytelling of the lives, loves, sorrows, conflicts, dreams, politics, and aspirations of two fairly ordinary people who lived an extra ordinary life, and have left us a legacy, and map of how to live and most importantly, what service and sacrifice is in living color.

Loved this!

Remarkable, resilient power couple and family of the 18th century. The relationship between the Adams and Thomas Jefferson... both Abigail and John with Thomas was closer than history books relay.

Informative and entertaining

Two of histories interesting couples so very well matched and each brought out the best in the other.