My Theodosia

by Anya Seton

Book Overview

"Anya Seton's portraits of Aaron and Theodosia Burr alike are vivid and credible . . . The narrative is well sustained, and provides as background an entertaining account of the manners, the ways of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449230341
• ISBN13: 9780449230343
• Release Date: November 1976
• Publisher: Fawcett Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A good read

This was a gift for a friend and she loved the story and also the history. She is lending it to everyone she knows.

Anya Seton afficionada

Love this book-couldnt put it down. Kept wondering how much was true and blown away by fact of her feeling for Merriwether Lewis. I felt as though I got to know Aaron Burr very intimately. Wonderful descriptions of both South Carolina countryside and Richmond Hill & Hudson. Although I adored her novel Katherine I have enjoyed the simplicity and length of this book more.

A solid first outing for Seton

This book tells the story of Aaron Burr and his daughter Theodosia (Theo). I have to admit I didn't recall much of Burr from history class outside of the duel with Alexander Hamilton. At the start of the book Theo is 17 and Burr is vice president of the United States. Burr plots to have Theo married to the wealthy but uninteresting Joseph Alston of South Carolina. Burr needs some of that money to cover his debts and also the power of the Alstons to gain him political support in the south. The relationship between Burr and Theo is closer than most father/daughter relationships and Burr is able to manipulate Theo into his increasingly risky and treasonous schemes that distance her ever further from any satisfying relationship she might forge with her husband, and her greatest joy in life is her young son. There are lots of well known names in the story as Theo interacts with them -- Washington Irving (a minor character), Meriwether Lewis (sigh!), Dolly Madison, Alexander Hamilton and more. I love the way she sets her scenes and writes the various dialects, it's like you really hear them as they would be spoken. Her characters could have been fleshed out better, there is so much subject material in the Burr story and it's twists and turns that could be turned into a gloriously fat and meaty work of historical fiction. Writers out there -- HINT HINT HINT. Be advised that if you read up on Aaron and Theo on the internet prior to finishing the book you will end up with some spoilers on your hands. However, do look Theo up afterwards and the legends surrounding her mysterious disappearance and the strange ghost that haunts a Carolina shore. Lastly, I was very glad there was not another forward by Philppa Gregory. The one she wrote for Devil Water and the way she obsessed about the too close relationship between father and daughter really irked me to no end.

ANOTHER OLDIE BUT GOODIE...

Having read this well-written book many years ago and having thoroughly enjoyed it, I decided it was time to pay an old friend another visit and re-read it. Time has certainly not diminished the capacity of this book to entertain the reader. The talented author deftly weaves the gossamer threads of history with fiction, creating a tapestry that tells the reader of the tragic life of Theodosia, beloved daughter and only child of the notorious Aaron Burr. Written by a master storyteller, it is an enjoyable and poignant portrait of Theodosia. While her life was tragic in many respects, the book tells a compelling story of a young woman whose name will forever remain in the annals of history.

I just love Anya Seton!

I read this in high school, this tragic tale of the ill-fated daughter of former vice- president Aaron Burr, and wife of Govenor Joseph Alston, Theodosia Burr Alston, who is said to haunt a beach in South Carolina. In 1812 Theodosia was on a ship that went down off the coast of North Carolina. The bodies of all the others lost at sea washed up, but hers was never found. It never ceases to amaze me how well Anya Seton can take historical facts, and blend with them just enough drama to make them readable, but not innacurate.You will not be able to put it down.