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A review by boomergran
Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams by Louisa Thomas
4.0
I knew very little of the life and times of our sixth President, but am intrigued by biographies of First Ladies; this biography was very satisfying in that regard.
Louisa Adams is hard to relate to from the distance of almost 200 years, largely due to the way women were expected to behave during her lifetime. She struggles with not considering herself to be very intelligent, with being a woman who needs much love and affirmation from the men in her life, even as they consistently disappoint her, and with her journey to find her voice. She was much more the woman behind the throne than she should have been for the times, but she also suffered from great depressions (12 miscarriages will probably do that to you, as well as the death of a young child), and frequently took to her bed with a variety of ills - whether real or imagined.
Her internal conflict over slavery, her burgeoning awareness of the equality of women, her insecurity in her marriage, her feelings of inferiority, all paint the picture of an interesting and - to me, at least - little-known woman. I also gained greater insight into the person of John Quincy Adams and the role he played in working toward the abolition of slavery nearly 20 years before the Civil War.
Although sometimes the book is a bit tedious, I was fascinated by this story of a woman who could be so physically/psychically debilitated that she couldn't leave her bed, yet could undertake a 40-day trip to Russia, making all arrangement and decisions along the way, with no help from her husband and only the company of young and unreliable servants. All in all, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams was quite a remarkable woman!
Louisa Adams is hard to relate to from the distance of almost 200 years, largely due to the way women were expected to behave during her lifetime. She struggles with not considering herself to be very intelligent, with being a woman who needs much love and affirmation from the men in her life, even as they consistently disappoint her, and with her journey to find her voice. She was much more the woman behind the throne than she should have been for the times, but she also suffered from great depressions (12 miscarriages will probably do that to you, as well as the death of a young child), and frequently took to her bed with a variety of ills - whether real or imagined.
Her internal conflict over slavery, her burgeoning awareness of the equality of women, her insecurity in her marriage, her feelings of inferiority, all paint the picture of an interesting and - to me, at least - little-known woman. I also gained greater insight into the person of John Quincy Adams and the role he played in working toward the abolition of slavery nearly 20 years before the Civil War.
Although sometimes the book is a bit tedious, I was fascinated by this story of a woman who could be so physically/psychically debilitated that she couldn't leave her bed, yet could undertake a 40-day trip to Russia, making all arrangement and decisions along the way, with no help from her husband and only the company of young and unreliable servants. All in all, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams was quite a remarkable woman!