The Education of Henry Adams, Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams, Henry Adams
List: $31.95 | Sale: $22.36
Club: $15.97

The Education of Henry Adams

Author: Henry Adams

Narrator: Wolfram Kandinsky

Unabridged: 21 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/12/2008

Synopsis

Few works have so firmly established their position in American literature as The Education of Henry Adams. As a man of extraordinary gifts and learning and a member of one of the greatest American families, Henry Adams wrote an insightful exploration of himself and the tumultuous age in which he lived. In the words of Van Wyck Brooks, he revealed a phase of American history with unparalleled boldness and truth. In spite of his illustrious background and Harvard schooling, Henry Adams asserts that his conventional education was defective because it did not prepare him to live in a world transformed by the new science and the new technology. His intention was to write a kind of handbook to prepare young men, in universities and elsewhere, to be men of the world, equipped for any emergency. The result is what many consider to be one of the finest autobiographies ever written.

About Henry Adams

Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918), American man of letters, was grandson and great-grandson of presidents of the United States. He taught history at Harvard, edited the North American Review, and published two novels. His ambitious History of the United States during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison appeared in nine volumes from 1889-91. His Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, an interpretation of the spiritual unity of the 13th century mind, led to his autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, which describes the multiplicity of the 20th century mind.

Reviews

Goodreads review by William2 on April 12, 2023

Epistemological inquiry in the form of self-denigrating autobiography. Written in the third person, at times overbearingly acerbic. Author Henry Adams was grandson of President John Quincy Adams and great-grandson of President John Adams. He was a Boston Puritan born in 1838 who at sixteen attended......more

Goodreads review by Justin on April 03, 2012

One of the oddest books I've ever read, and am ever likely to read: an autobiography written in the third person, which tells us almost nothing at all about the author/central character, this seems more like a pre-modernist bildungsroman than anything else. The weirdness doesn't end there- Henry Ada......more

Goodreads review by Roy on November 05, 2016

Once more! this is a story of education, not of adventure! It is meant to help young men—or such as have intelligence enough to seek help—but it is not meant to amuse them. Everyone agrees that this book is difficult and odd. An autobiography of an American man of letters, the son of a diplomat,......more

Goodreads review by Mackenzie on January 28, 2009

there is no book like this anywhere else in American literature. It annoys, it fascinates, it bores, it amuses... a densely textured, thoughtful, at times exasperating story of growing up in the American 19th Century by the great-grandson of one president and the grandson of another -- who freely ad......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on September 27, 2007

Henry Adams was the original celebutante: famous for nothing other than being related to the two John Adams(es), he was in the unique position of having access to the upper crust of post-revolutionary America without having the burden of any kind of responsibility. This book is a guided tour of 19th-......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List