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A Great Improvisation
Franklin, France, And The Birth Of America
by Stacy Schiff
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Vera" details the seven years spent by aging founding father Benjamin Franklin in France, where he was able to negotiate an alliance to preserve American independence.
Henry Holt and Co., 512 pages
04/02/2005
$30.00
ISBN: 0805066330
Nonfiction
History
NOTES:
Known in the UK as "Dr. Franklin Goes To France: How America Was Born In Monarchical Europe."
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Booklist Jay Freeman
This is an outstanding chronicle of an American icon peforming perhaps his greatest service to his country. [1 Mar 2005, p.1121]
Publishers Weekly
Schiff's sure-handed historical research and her majestic prose offer glimpses into a little-explored chapter of Franklin's life and American history. [7 Feb 2005, p.50]
Los Angeles Times Avedis Hadjian
[A] magnificent account. [1 Apr 2005, p.E28]
New York Review Of Books Gordon S. Wood
A stunning book.... Her book is filled with telling anecdotes and is lively, witty, and extremely readable.
The Guardian Hazel Mills
The book clearly aims to be both popular and Pulitzer.
Daily Telegraph Freya Johnston
It's tricky to sustain a reader's interest in ministerial routines and meetings, but Schiff excels at incisive, psychologically plausible summaries of the private and public characters of her large cast, allowing us to view them in the round and on the move.
Daily Telegraph Munro Price
A lively and generally entertaining account.
The New York Times Book Review Walter Isaacson
She occasionally lapses into clichés..., and some of her phrases read as if she wrote them first in period French.... Nevertheless, her research is so convincing and her feel for the subject so profound that ''A Great Improvisation'' becomes both an enjoyable narrative and the most important recent addition to original Franklin scholarship.
The New Yorker
This meticulously researched account captures a key moment in his history, and in ours, with verve, élan, and wit.
Washington Post Isabelle de Courtivron
It is an entertaining story, bringing alive a cast of colorful characters, strange plot twists and bizarre anecdotes, which sometimes reads like a movie script replete with intrigues, ultimatums, cabals, swindles and vendettas.
New York Observer Ted Widmer
Like all books, this one has flaws, and the pace slows noticeably after the exciting developments of Franklin's first years in Paris, when the war really was up for grabs. It will be a hard slog for those who do not traffic in 18th-century history or who consider diplomacy somehow un-American. [11 Apr 2005, p.16]
The Economist
An ebullient account of his years in France.
Boston Globe David Waldstreicher
Her writing sometimes verges on outrageous generalization, and bon mot over precision.... Most of the time, though, her verbal pyrotechnics make an effective point about ironic situations.
Chicago Tribune Joyce E. Chaplin
It is a wonder that the book, exhaustively researched and finely written, is as economical as it is. [17 Apr 2005, p.C1]
Kirkus Reviews
A lively, well-written, and most timely study of diplomacy in action. [15 Jan 2005, p.111]
The New York Times William Grimes
The highly wrought prose grows tiresome over the course of 400 pages and makes the complicated diplomatic maneuverings Ms. Schiff describes even harder to follow.
The Spectator Hugh Brogan
It is no pleasure struggling with Stacy Schiff’s prose. Yet it must be conceded that in its slovenly, repetitious fashion the book is enjoyable because Franklin is such an engaging subject.
 The average user rating for this book is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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