Jefferson's Demons: Portrait of a Restless MindSimon and Schuster, 2010/05/11 - 288 ページ "I have often wondered for what good end the sensations of Grief could be intended." -- Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson suffered during his life from periodic bouts of dejection and despair, shadowed intervals during which he was full of "gloomy forebodings" about what lay ahead. Not long before he composed the Declaration of Independence, the young Jefferson lay for six weeks in idleness and ill health at Monticello, paralyzed by a mysterious "malady." Similar lapses were to recur during anxious periods in his life, often accompanied by violent headaches. In Jefferson's Demons, Michael Knox Beran illuminates an optimistic man's darker side -- Jefferson as we have rarely seen him before. The worst of these moments came after his wife died in 1782. But two years later, after being dispatched to Europe, Jefferson recovered nerve and spirit in the salons of Paris, where he fell in love with a beautiful young artist, Maria Cosway. When their affair ended, Jefferson's health again broke down. He set out for the palms and temples of southern Europe, and though he did not know where the therapeutic journey would take him or where it would end, his encounter with the old civilizations of the Mediterranean was transformative. The Greeks and Romans taught him that a man could make productive use of his demons. Jefferson's immersion in the mystic truths of the Old World gave him insights into mysteries of life and art that Enlightenment philosophy had failed to supply. Beran skillfully shows how Jefferson drew on the esoteric lore he encountered to transform anxiety into action. On his return to America, Jefferson entered the most productive period of his life: He created a new political party, was elected president, and doubled the size of the country. His private labors were no less momentous...among them, the artistry of Monticello and the University of Virginia. Jefferson's Demons is an elegantly composed account of the strangeness and originality of one Founder's genius. Michael Knox Beran uncovers the maps Jefferson used to find his way out of dejection and to forge a new democratic culture for America. Here is a Jefferson who, with all his failings, remains one of his country's greatest teachers and prophets. |
この書籍内から
検索結果1-5 / 30
ページ
... mysteries of existence that he resorted, on occasion, to a language stained in mysticism, and truer to the strangeness. It is one of the principal oddnesses of his life. If he was to be a model Whig, he could not be wholly a Whig. To ...
... mysteries of existence that he resorted, on occasion, to a language stained in mysticism, and truer to the strangeness. It is one of the principal oddnesses of his life. If he was to be a model Whig, he could not be wholly a Whig. To ...
ページ
... mysterious about its character. “I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know,” he told Ezra Stiles in the decade before he died. Just now we are between Jeffersons. Older editions of the man have been put aside. No new volume has yet ...
... mysterious about its character. “I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know,” he told Ezra Stiles in the decade before he died. Just now we are between Jeffersons. Older editions of the man have been put aside. No new volume has yet ...
ページ
... , to a dissatisfaction with his life was yet determined to squeeze out of it the last enchantment of its mystery. He wrung it more fiercely than we know or have cared to see. PART ONE SPRING There's not the smallest orb which thou.
... , to a dissatisfaction with his life was yet determined to squeeze out of it the last enchantment of its mystery. He wrung it more fiercely than we know or have cared to see. PART ONE SPRING There's not the smallest orb which thou.
ページ
... mystery of his complaint and leave unanswered the question of whether its ultimate causes were physiological or psychological. Was the headache related to the “melancholy fit,” as Jefferson called it, into which his amorous exertions ...
... mystery of his complaint and leave unanswered the question of whether its ultimate causes were physiological or psychological. Was the headache related to the “melancholy fit,” as Jefferson called it, into which his amorous exertions ...
ページ
... mystery and one that exercised the ingenious speculation of historians. One biographer ascribed the funk to Jefferson's “orderloving, rigid” qualities, while another supposed it to have been “triggered” by, among other things, his ...
... mystery and one that exercised the ingenious speculation of historians. One biographer ascribed the funk to Jefferson's “orderloving, rigid” qualities, while another supposed it to have been “triggered” by, among other things, his ...
他の版 - すべて表示
多く使われている語句
Abigail Adams Alexander Hamilton American ancient antiquity April architecture believed British Burr called Callender century classical Clérisseau daughter Declaration demon dreams eighteenthcentury Federalist French frieze garden genius Greek Hamilton Henry Hyères ibid idea inspiration James Madison James Monroe Jefferson Abroad Jefferson to Dr Jefferson to James Jefferson to John Jefferson to Madame Jefferson to Maria Jefferson to William Jefferson wrote John Adams knew letter liberty Lipscomb and Bergh living Madame de Tessé Maison Carrée Malone man’s March Maria Cosway Marseilles Martha Jefferson Mediterranean mind Monticello mystery mystic nature never Nîmes one’s Papers Paris passion Patsy Philadelphia poet poetry political president’s prophetic Provence Randolph reprint republic republican revolution Roman Rome Sally Hemings sentimental slave Socrates soul spirit temple Tessé things Thomas Jefferson thought told trans University Virginia virtue Washington Whig William Short William Stephens Smith wine words Writings York young