Democracy

Gilded-Age Washington seen from a hired house on Lafayette Square, across from the White House. Adams maps the real capital from the inside: the Senate gallery, the presidential reception, and the steamer excursion down the Potomac to Mount Vernon. He published anonymously and knew every one of these rooms.

Madeleine Lee

Lafayette Square: Mrs Lee's house

Washington, 1 December · 3% through the novel

On the first of December, Mrs. Lee took the train for Washington, and before five o'clock that evening she was entering her newly hired house on Lafayette Square.

The widow Madeleine Lee comes to Washington to see power at close range, and takes a house on Lafayette Square, across the park from the White House. From this drawing room she will study the capital and the men who run it.

inferred Lafayette Square, facing the White House across the park, is a real place, named in the text. Adams never gives the house number, so the pin sits on the square where Mrs Lee takes her hired house.

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