Courting Mr. Lincoln

This thoroughly enjoyable, Austenesque work of historical fiction captivated me from the start. The emotional, if not romantic, triangle of Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd and Joshua Speed at the crux of the story kept me wondering about the actual relationship between those two men. The author clearly implies a homosexual connection between the two, yet no actual physical act ever takes place, despite the historically accurate description of male bed-sharing of that era. Bayard brings the three main characters to life based on historic records. The writing is lush and lovely. I was glad to be reading the book on Kindle, as the rich vocabulary required frequent dictionary lookups. Yet the writing flows, the language seeming natural to the upper class, 19th-century setting. Highly recommended.

This was a somewhat interesting take on the period when Lincoln and Mary Todd were courting. We are shown what their lives might have been like through the voice of Mary and her "rival" Joshua Speed.

Pros:
The story in interesting and different for the time period.
He does a decent job of getting you into the minds of both sides of this story.
I loved the gritty glimpse of what real life was like during that time.

Cons:
I hated the ending. It was so very depressing.
I also hated Lincoln for pretty much the whole book. Maybe that was his real personality, though.
The relationship between Lincoln and Speed is very vague leaving you wondering most of the time if they are lovers or just friends. I feel like the writer wanted you to believe they were lovers but was unwilling to delve into what makes up a romantic relationship between two men. I would think there is more to it than being stuck in a room together for years.

This book was received as an ARC from Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was intrigued from the start of the book due to my love for untold/behind the scenes stories of iconic historical events and figures such and Abe Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. While reading this I could not help but picture the both of them telling their story to me as if we were having dinner in their living room and we were sharing some outlandish stories just to make the night interesting. Louis Bayard does a remarkable job in telling the story of how Mary Todd and Abe met and how she was a huge influence on the man he was as our 16th president. If you are a lover of historical fiction and want a drama packed love story, I highly recommend this book.

We will definitely consider adding this title to our Historical Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Such an interesting read. I love reading fiictionalized accounts of historical figures. It makes me want to learn more about the real person and not just what was taught in history class.

This was an interesting story, and like all fiction that is about real people, it re-introduced me to several important historical figures in a way that allowed me to relate to them better than a non-fiction book could. It also made me want to look up the characters and see how well their lives in the book fit with the historical record. The characters in this book were so close to real life that even some of the dialog came directly from letters that the main characters wrote each other in real life.

My understanding of the cover and the title was that there would be a romance in the book between the two male main characters. There is some evidence in the historical record to lead some to believe that Lincoln's sexuality was not strictly heterosexual, so I expected a romance between Joshua and Lincoln. There absolutely was not. It was implied that Joshua Speed wanted to have at least a platonic relationship with Lincoln where they remained bachelors together, but even in his own head he never admitted a wish for romance. The story was from the point of view of Joshua and Mary Todd, so we never had any idea what Lincoln actually felt about anything. The story as a whole was confusing and unsatisfying because of this seeming disparity.

An author's note at the end would have helped me understand better what the author intended, and perhaps there will be one in the final copy (I read an ARC). Without some statement of intent from the author I will always remain confused by the point of this story.

Mary Lincoln has gone down in history in an unfavorable light. She has been known as a spendthrift and a madwoman. But this book shows her to us in a new light, as a young girl falling in love who has no idea of the life ahead of her, It shines a light on the people and places who formed the young Lincolns and I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the life of the Lincolns.