HENRY AND CLARA, A NOVEL by Thomas Mallon

I love historical fiction and I rank this novel as one of the best of this genre I’ve ever read.  My enjoyment was increased by the fact that the story evolves during the time of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.  I’ve read many fine recently published books about Lincoln and have visited his Springfield home and tomb several times both as a child and as an adult.

This story is a mesmerizing tale of Clara and Henry Rathbone, memorialized forever as the young couple occupying the Ford’s Theatre box with President and Mrs. Lincoln on the evening John Wilkes Booth shot Mr. Lincoln.

Meticulously researched, Mallon weaves what is historically known about the couple, their families, and the social and political environment of Washington DC before, during and after the Civil War with an imagined narrative between characters as well as their innermost thoughts.

Wonderfully written, the story opens with a six page prologue representing the thoughts of John Wilkes Booth galloping away from the scene of the assassination, April 14, 1895: “One week after Lee had given up! Did the Ape think everyone would forget and forgive so soon? Virginia was still full of men whose blood boiled in their breasts, and they would welcome John Wilkes Booth as a hero.”

In the narrative, the night of the assassination occurs almost exactly in the middle of the book so the first half establishes the characters before the event and the second half tells their story up to and including Clara’s death.

This novel has everything:  love, passion, intrigue, duty, honor, and murder.

Ticknor & Fields, 1994, 358 p.