"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.
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