Benjamin Franklin
Amazon Price: $8.76
List Price: $10.95
Usually ships in 24 hours
By: Touchstone
Amazon Marketplace: 63
new & used starting at $3.43
|
Buy at Amazon.com
|
Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
How can I give Benjamin Franklin fewer than five stars? 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
In what began as a letter to his son in 1771, Franklin decided to share the "anecdotes of [his] ancestors" and impart some of his own wisdom learned during his life. But the crisis between America and Great Britain would soon put a halt to his autobiographical work. It would be more than a decade later, at the pleadings of his friends, that Franklin would again take up his pen and complete his memoir.
The first section, the letter to his son, is the best part of the book. Here, the plot drives the story with some divergences into his philosophy. He describes his modest childhood in Boston and his gradual ascent to civic leader in Philadelphia. He shares his many disappointments (friends who had deceived him) and his many accomplishments (establishing a secret philosophical club, a successful printing press, a public library, and the list goes on and on).
In the next half of the book, taken up at the requests of his friends, he delves deeper into his personal philosophy and describes his system to work on the 13 virtues he needed to perfect to arrive at "moral perfection." He notes the impossibility of this project but believes the pursuit in itself made him a better person. He also gives more details on his public works and his role in Pennsylvania's government. Despite divulging his thoughts on religion and ethics, Franklin seems more distant than in the first section, and I didn't get a good grasp on his life in his later years.
But what's most remarkable about Franklin's autobiography is his unpretentious writing style. He strikes a conversational tone, coasting through one anecdote to the next, or what he sardonically describes as "rambling digressions." Only toward the end does this charming tone flags a bit.
I strongly recommend this autobiography to people who've a strong interest in the Founding Fathers. People with a passing interest should try reading at least some background information on Franklin, because you won't get the full portrait of the man here. You learn little about his family or inventions, and the autobiography stops (quite suddenly) when he's in England for a dispute between the Pennsylvania Assembly and governor. Overall, though, the readability of the book for its time is astounding.
Editorial Review:
"The first book to belong permanently to literature. It created a man."
-- From the Introduction
Few men could compare to Benjamin Franklin. Virtually self-taught, he excelled as an athlete, a man of letters, a printer, a scientist, a wit, an inventor, an editor, and a writer, and he was probably the most successful diplomat in American history. David Hume hailed him as the first great philosopher and great man of letters in the New World.
Written initially to guide his son, Franklin's autobiography is a lively, spellbinding account of his unique and eventful life. Stylistically his best work, it has become a classic in world literature, one to inspire and delight readers everywhere.
