OCTOBER 2018 - AudioFile
This richly detailed audiobook attempts to explore all aspects of the life of Eliza Hamilton, the wife of Alexander Hamilton. The author concentrates on Eliza’s life after Alexander’s death, particularly her efforts to help families, especially children, in need. Narrator January LaVoy takes the many facets of Eliza described and creates a fully fleshed-out character with personality, wit, and intelligence. She engages listeners by creating voices for each of the characters involved in the telling of Eliza’s story through Eliza’s correspondence. LaVoy’s delivery of narrative passages is just as engaging. She keeps listeners audience engaged through the tragic duel that took Alexander’s life and the financial disaster that almost put Eliza on the street. Listeners will appreciate this creative presentation by an outstanding performer. E.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2018 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
07/16/2018
Mazzeo (Irena’s Children) centers love and devotion in this satisfying cradle-to-grave biography, the first written about the wife of the first U.S. secretary of the treasury. Drawing from an impressive breadth of sources, Mazzeo shows what made Eliza, in the words of her husband, Alexander, the “best of wives, best of women.” Born into a prominent New York family in 1757, Eliza Schuyler’s young life was dominated by war, especially the American Revolution. That war netted her a husband, the hardworking, ambitious Colonel Hamilton, who later served as President Washington’s secretary of the treasury. Mazzeo convincingly argues that Eliza’s determination to emulate the sacrifice and loyalty of classical Roman wives is key to understanding their marriage and the truth about Alexander’s infamous affair with Maria Reynolds, later revealed to be a coverup for financial misconduct that if revealed could have harmed not only the family but the Washington administration. After Alexander’s death in the 1804 duel, Eliza still had half her life ahead of her. Mazzeo gives less attention to the years during which Eliza exercised her widow’s independence, which is disappointing. Nevertheless, this is an expertly told story that’s certain to captivate Hamilton fans and intrigue anyone interested in early U.S. history. (Sept.)
Kate Andersen Brower
"Tilar Mazzeo brings Eliza Hamilton to life in this first ever comprehensive biography of a woman who is known solely for the man she married but whose courage and generosity are revealed here. Fast-paced and reads like a novel."
Christopher Andersen
In Tilar J. Mazeo's vivid, compelling, and unputdownable new biography, Eliza Hamilton finally takes her place in the pantheon of remarkable American women who, no less than the men they loved, built this nation.
Stacy Horn
Tilar Mazzeo has made me fall in love with the enchanting, but refreshingly real Eliza Hamilton. An important portrait of a woman as intriguingly complicated and now as deservedly memorable as her husband.
Jess Dannhauser
"Tilar Mazzeo has given us the profound gift of getting to know more fully the extraordinary woman whose legacy we are honored to carry forward today. Eliza Hamilton inspires!"
—Christopher Andersen
In Tilar J. Mazeo's vivid, compelling, and unputdownable new biography, Eliza Hamilton finally takes her place in the pantheon of remarkable American women who, no less than the men they loved, built this nation.
—Stacy Horn
Tilar Mazzeo has made me fall in love with the enchanting, but refreshingly real Eliza Hamilton. An important portrait of a woman as intriguingly complicated and now as deservedly memorable as her husband.
—Jess Dannhauser
"Tilar Mazzeo has given us the profound gift of getting to know more fully the extraordinary woman whose legacy we are honored to carry forward today. Eliza Hamilton inspires!"
—Kate Andersen Brower
"Tilar Mazzeo brings Eliza Hamilton to life in this first ever comprehensive biography of a woman who is known solely for the man she married but whose courage and generosity are revealed here. Fast-paced and reads like a novel."
OCTOBER 2018 - AudioFile
This richly detailed audiobook attempts to explore all aspects of the life of Eliza Hamilton, the wife of Alexander Hamilton. The author concentrates on Eliza’s life after Alexander’s death, particularly her efforts to help families, especially children, in need. Narrator January LaVoy takes the many facets of Eliza described and creates a fully fleshed-out character with personality, wit, and intelligence. She engages listeners by creating voices for each of the characters involved in the telling of Eliza’s story through Eliza’s correspondence. LaVoy’s delivery of narrative passages is just as engaging. She keeps listeners audience engaged through the tragic duel that took Alexander’s life and the financial disaster that almost put Eliza on the street. Listeners will appreciate this creative presentation by an outstanding performer. E.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2018 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-07-02
The life of Mrs. Alexander Hamilton.When Eliza Schuyler (1757-1854) first met Alexander Hamilton, writes Mazzeo (English/Colby Coll.; Irena's Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto, 2016, etc.), "it was not love at first sight." But at a second meeting, "the spark between them was instantaneous." So began the relationship that would give Eliza her most enduring identity as the wife of a dueling Founding Father. The center of this biography is the affair Alexander confessed to having with Maria Reynolds. There has always been debate about the affair: Did it really happen, or did Alexander, who was Secretary of the Treasury at the time, invent the adulterous liaison to distract from more damaging rumors that he was committing insider trading? Despite the scandal, Mazzeo's Eliza appears stoic, loyal, and canny. Indeed, the author argues compellingly that what we know about Eliza's character suggests that the affair was a ruse. According to Mazzeo, Eliza stood by her man not because she was weak but because she was committed to protecting her family from the more serious downfall that would occur were Alexander found guilty of fraud. The narrative tends toward mostly charming yet sometimes flat vignettes—e.g., President George Washington sitting in Eliza's parlor and watching the Hamilton kids play. Describing Eliza and Alexander's wedding, Mazzeo casually mentions "family slaves…unwrapping a wedding cake," but she devotes far more attention to the cake than to the Schuylers' use of enslaved labor. The prose is by turns trite ("Eliza would bury another part of her heart there in the graveyard") and breathless ("What happened next would change everything in her life and in her marriage and would force Eliza into making an agonizing decision"). The author devotes a scant 53 pages to the half-century after Alexander's death. Readers may wish for a more detailed treatment of Eliza's work, as a widow, with New York's Orphan Asylum Society.A middling biography of a worthy subject.
