| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Scandal at Bizarre: Rumor and Reputation in Jefferson's America. By Cynthia A. Kierner. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. x, 246 pp. $26.95, ISBN 1-403-96115-8.)

In the prologue to this fascinating book, Cynthia A. Kierner acknowledges that the story she is about to recount has "received substantial coverage" as nonfiction and fiction (p. 7). That is not surprising. It would be hard to find a cast of characters, a location, a period, and a narrative with more attention-grabbing drama. There are prominent people (the Randolphs of Virginia) in big houses with odd and pretentious names (Glentivar and Bizarre), an embattled heroine (Nancy Randolph), her alleged lover (Richard Randolph), an eccentric villain (John Randolph), a gallant rescuer (Gouverneur Morris), other famous people (Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Patrick Henry), allegations of adultery and incest (by affinity, not blood), infanticide, and a long, largely successful struggle for redemption.

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