MRS. LINCOLN'S SISTERS

In 1875, Robert Lincoln committed his mother to an asylum for the insane. How did former first lady Mary Todd Lincoln fall from grace to incarceration at Bellevue Place?

Well known for her extensive Elm Creek Quilts series, Chiaverini now returns to the intimate circles of the political elite during the Civil War era, which she most recently explored with Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker (2013). Leaving behind the often distracting intricacies of quilt- and dressmaking, Chiaverini builds a believable domestic sphere in which the women surrounding Mary—women who have also mourned the losses of husbands and children—try to puzzle out when she began to lose her sanity and whether her griefs truly transcend their own. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different sister, which leaves Mary’s own thoughts and intentions tantalizingly mysterious. Mary’s three sisters—Elizabeth, Frances, and Ann—each recall Mary’s early life, from being the apple of her father’s eye to being banished to boarding school by her uncharmed stepmother to her surprising marriage to Abraham Lincoln. Once the Lincolns moved into the White House, her sisters recall, Mary’s quirks, including holding grudges and indulging in shopping sprees, became cause for marital strife and national criticism. The subsequent deaths of three sons, as well as Abe’s assassination, plunged Mary into the crisis that eventually led her remaining son, Robert, to have her committed. But as the sisters valiantly try to explain away Mary’s eccentric behavior, Mary again descends into paranoia and threats of violence.

An engaging glimpse of women’s privilege and anguish during the Civil War era.