Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon

by Michael O'Brien

Early in 1815, Louisa Catherine Adams and her young son left St. Petersburg in a heavy Russian carriage and set out on a difficult journey to meet her husband, John Quincy Adams, in Paris. She traveled through the snows of eastern Europe, down the Baltic coast to Prussia, across the battlefields of Germany, and into a France then experiencing the tumultuous events of Napoleon’s return from Elba. Along the way, she learned what the long years of Napoleon’s wars had done to Europe, what her old friends in the royal court in Berlin had experienced during the French occupation, how it felt to have her life threatened by reckless soldiers, and how to manage fear.

The journey was a metaphor for a life spent crossing born in London in 1775, she had grown up partly in France, and in 1797 had married into the most famous of American political dynasties and become the daughter-in-law of John and Abigail Adams.

The prizewinning historian Michael O’Brien reconstructs for the first time Louisa Adams’s extraordinary passage. An evocative history of the experience of travel in the days of carriages and kings, Mrs. Adams in Winter offers a moving portrait of a lady, her difficult marriage, and her conflicted sense of what it meant to be a woman caught between worlds.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, American History, Russia, France, Travel

364 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Various authors, various genres (not disambiguated)

Reviews

[Willowwind · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would not be everyone's cup of tea but I found it fascinating. In the winter of 1815, Louisa Catherine Adams, the wife of future President John Quincey Adams left ST Petersburg with her 7 year old son to travel by coach to Paris, nearly 2000 miles away across a Europe torn and dangerous from the aftermath of Napoleon's defeat and exile. In the 40 days it took her to reach Paris we are a given a fascinating portrait of a brave woman with an often unhappy marriage, a high standard to meet and a continuous sense that she is not up to the task of being an Adams. Along the way she learns to arrange her own affairs, looses babes to illness and miscarriage and learns to grace the highest courts in Europe as the wife of an American ambassador and above all comes to know herself. The form of the book itself is a 'daring literary device, brilliantly executed. " Wonderful details of the places she passed through and the society she took part in. Few American president's wives seem to have led lives in the forefront of diplomacy but Louisa Catherine became at home among Russian Czars, Prussian Kings, British Princes and Rhineland Electors. And she left us diaries, letters and essays to shed light on both her personal tragedies and the circles she moved in from ST Petersburg to Berlin to Paris and from London to Washington and Quincey. This is not your ordinary lightweight history as so much of it is in her own words. Beautiful narration by Cassandra Campbelll

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I recognize that my women's studies background makes me approach all books by men, about women, with some suspicion but I am working on being more open-minded. So when I read that Louisa's sister "got herself pregnant" I simply rolled my eyes and kept reading. But when yet another young woman in the tale "got herself pregnant" I mumbled to myself "is it a poor understanding of anatomy or about the historical availability of birth control? And I'd bet money the editor is a dude if this sentence made it through not just once, but twice." I flipped to the acknowledgements section to confirm my hunch. Nailed it!

The larger problem for me is that there's now a major trust barrier between the author and me. Louisa Adams was presented as a sometimes difficult character, as well as a woman who at different times embraced or chafed against gender expectations. So I need an author who will guide me through the world in which she lived, help me understand her character as she navigated these expectations, and help me understand when she was being truly difficult and when I might want to be a bit more forgiving. But when the author himself so easily dismisses the realities of women living in this (pre-Margaret Sanger) society, he's kind of told me that he is not up for that job.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that Louisa Catherine Adams is one of the most interesting First Ladies in American history--and I also think that her husband, John Quincy Adams, while right on so many issues, could be a bit of a prig. This book details Louisa's journey of almost 2,000 mils from St. Petersburg, Russia to Paris, France in 1815. John Quincy Adams had been the Ambassador to Russia when he was called to help negotiate the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812. He left his wife and seven year old son behind in Russia for this temporary assignment. After a year, he was posted to Paris and Louisa had to travel virtually alone in a Russian coach across Europe. Oh, did I mention that she discovers that Napoleon has left Elba and is also heading to Paris? She only beats Napoleon to Paris by a day or two. During this dangerous journey, Louisa is forced to make the decisions of which routes to follow and when to heed and when to ignore advice on the dangers facing her. An interesting look at society in Russia, Prussia, and France in the days following the Napoleonic Wars and Napoleon's return for the Hundred Days. Also a fascinating look at the pre-presidential lives of both Louisa Catherine Adams and her husband and the complexity of their marriage.

[Linore · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strongly researched book, the author excels when he tracks the journey of Mrs. Adams, giving lovely details of terrain, landmarks, and the political climate surrounding her as she lumbered through Europe by coach. I think the personal interpretations are somewhat less successful, as one quote the author uses to make a point is later refuted by another quote (and this applies to his interpretation of John Quincy Adams as much as Louisa, and in particular, their marriage). Nevertheless, there is a great sense of time and place, interesting details about Napoleon and his soldiers, and of the unique distresses faced by a woman traveling through the early 19th century in Eastern Europe to Paris. Entertaining and enlightening, I recommend this book.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louisa Catherine Adams was born in London in 1775, though she did a lot of growing up in France. In 1797, she married John Quincy Adams. (She would go on to become First Lady of the United States of America from 1825 to 1829.) This book chronicles her trip from St. Petersburg to Paris with her son. At the time, Napoleon had returned to France from Elba, throwing the region into chaos. She was able to see and speak with people who were experiencing life under these circumstances during this time period.

Personal accounts and experiences are so vital to the historical record. I often say I miss the days of Journal keeping, but I suppose in this modern era that would be in the form of social media posts and videos. I especially liked this book since I coincidentally picked it to read while I was visiting somewhere this weekend that had items that belonged to Napoleon. (His dressing set and camp plate were included in that, as well as a cane.) It was interesting to put an outsider's personal account to someone's physical objects that I was seeing. This was a really good book for that reason, and it was also great to learn a little bit about Mrs. Adams. I think we learn more about the male Presidents than we do their wives, and I am glad to be expanding my education on those figures of history.

[Edward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, Louisa Adams, wife of the future president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, traveled 2000 miles by a horse drawn carriage from St. Petersburg to Paris in 1815. The journey took place from February 12 to Mary 23. She traveled with her small son, Charles Francis and one attendant across rugged winter countryside to begin with, and at the end through a war-torn Europe where, coincidentally, Napoleon was making his comeback from Elba just before the Battle of Waterloo. The 40 day trip cost the equivalent of $28,000 today. She was joining her husband who was a American diplomat in Paris; before that he had been stationed in Russia at St. Petersburg and sent for her to join him.
But, amazingly enough, nothing much of any consequence happened on the trip. Her party didn't get lost, it didn't fall through the ice, it wasn't set upon by brigands to be robbed (as often happened). All of these things COULD have happened, but didn't. The trip was fairly uneventful.
Where does the interest lie in these 300 pages, then? Frequent stops, especially a long one at Strasbourg on the eastern border of France, gives the author plenty of space to fill in background information. This was a troubled marriage. John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, and future president of the United States, was a remote and solitary man with virtually no friends. He was most at home with his books and had little patience for others. Louisa, the only first lady not born or raised in the United States, was outgoing and friendly. It was ironic that "over the long decades of his meticulous diary keeping, she was to appear very little as a character, except by way of his designating her presence or absence at an event, and those moments when there was a crisis, usually her ill health [often caused by miscarriages]". Why did she stay married to him? She really had no other options.

[Adam Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a fascinating look into what it was like for a woman and her young son to travel from St. Petersburg Russia through the Baltics, Poland, modern Germany, an on to Paris. It is also a look at the life of a woman of reasonable stature in the last century of Monarchy in Europe.

Both subject are interesting, but do not exactly match my interests at this time. And the book was oddly put together--at every step in the journey there is a flashback to an earlier era of Louisa's life. We don't learn until the final section that she was in deep mourning during the journey for the recent death of her daughter. Why not tell us that up front? We aren't really introduced to John Quincy Adams, her husband until the last fifth of the book. If you are going to introduce him at all (he doesn't figure into the book really), don't do it so late. And so forth.

It is clear that the author is not very sympathetic to Louisa. He finds her fascinating and brave, but often a spoiled pain in the arse. He quoted her son many years later speaking about his mother: "It is difficult to deal with sensitive women."

There are some interesting vignettes. Louisa wanted to wear rouge make-up but John forbade it. She tried to wear it to a formal royal party. John physically held her down and washed her face and left her home. This happened twice. And apparently was not viewed by either of them as unrighteous dominion or abuse.

Overall, this book is worth reading if you want to peek into the world of the upper-class women of the early 1800s in Europe. It is a poor biography and bad general history. I know a lot about post roads and postilions, so there is that.

[Tom Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever read a book from the 18th/19th century where the protagonists travel in a carriage from one city to another? Did you ever wonder what that would be like? Can you tell a Berlin from a Phaeton?

Well this book answers those questions and more.

This is the story of Louisa Catherine Adams wife of future President John Quincy Adams and how she traveled from St Petersburg, Russia to Paris, France. Along the way, you will learn how the post-road system worked. As you travel with Mrs. Adams along her 40 day trek, you will discover many of the things that can go wrong. You will find out how war ravages a countryside and just how many people are out there who don't give a fig about you and are looking for the easiest way to rip you off along the road.

In addition, her travel not only takes place in the miserable cold of winter, but Napoleon has just gotten back from his exile on Elba and his rough and rapey soldiers are on the march.

Along the way, Mr. Obrien tries to analyze Mrs. Adams and gives insights into her biography prior to the journey. He shows how Mrs. Adams wanted to make herself significant in a world and marriage that demanded her silent obeisance.

Even if you don't care a wit about Mrs. Adams and who she is (although she is quite interesting), this book will give you some insight into how terrible a place Europe was in 1815. So get the book and read it before you decide to get into that time machine to go back and watch Napoleon's comeback.

I recommend.

[Jennifer Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting account of first lady Louisa Adams's 40 day journey from St. Petersburg to Paris in the winter of 1815. Probably best to have read some history of this time period, also the locations, prior to reading this.

[Kathryn Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of Mrs John Quincy Adams' journey from St Petersburg (where they had been stationed) to Paris to meet her husband at the start of the last (Seventh) Napoleonic War. There are some things that author does well, like explaining the places and sites seen, the distances travelled, how the post-houses, postilions and currency worked, and some of the other challenges of travelling during that time. He also pulls in her story before and after the journey, which I appreciated. It was interesting to read how the people liked the French soldiers better than the Cossacks because the French at least left the potatoes so people wouldn't starve but the Russians took those (and 1/3 of the population perished) and the Cossacks would rape and kill women. It was also interesting to learn how the currencies and measures were so difficult because there were so many of them, leading John Quincy Adams to propose going with a universal system of measures in the US in the 1800s (not adopted). Curiously, what was not explained was what one did if one had to go to the bathroom. The information regarding the cost of the journey helps explain how unaffordable travel was for most people (interesting that he never posits this as one of the reasons that Mrs Adams was in such a hurry to press on to Paris even though he states that she was over budget in the end despite not lingering), in addition to being extremely difficult. As someone who loves to travel, I'm eternally grateful for living in a time when it is more accessible. There are some parts of the book which I hope the author will address in a subsequent edition as it would make it even more informative. For example, the explanation of the members of the monarchy (particularly Prussia) was confusing rather than elucidating, so I ended up going online and creating my own chart so I could follow the players. The chart I created was useful for the rest of the book. It would be great if the author could provide a chart of the royal family members discussed like he does for Mrs Adams' itinerary (something I also consulted regularly). There are also some other typesetting errors which create confusion, such as on page 293 where the journey that Louis XVI and his family took to try to escape is outlined and it switches to discussing Louis XVIII's route to escape but it refers to the latter by the number of the former.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an enchanting book about Louisa Catherine Adams' journey from St. Petersburg to Paris during Napoleon's last grasp at power. It's an exhilarating carriage ride through the snow, deep forests, icy rivers and past battlefields littered with skeletons. Along the way, you meet tsars and other royals. The author takes several tangents to tell about Louisa's life. The daughter of a financially ruined man, she began marriage into the famous Adams family under less than ideal circumstances. She brought no money, great scandal and a family tree of illegitimacy into the marriage. I was sorry for this book to end.

[Lu]

Early in 1815, Louisa Catherine Adams and her young son left St. Petersburg in a heavy Russian carriage and set out on a difficult journey to meet her husband, John Quincy Adams, in Paris. She traveled through the snows of eastern Europe, down the Baltic coast to Prussia, across the battlefields of Germany, and into a France then experiencing the tumultuous events of Napoleon’s return from Elba. Along the way, she learned what the long years of Napoleon’s wars had done to Europe, what her old friends in the royal court in Berlin had experienced during the French occupation, how it felt to have her life threatened by reckless soldiers, and how to manage fear.

The journey was a metaphor for a life spent crossing borders: born in London in 1775, she had grown up partly in France, and in 1797 had married into the most famous of American political dynasties and become the daughter-in-law of John and Abigail Adams.

The prizewinning historian Michael O’Brien reconstructs for the first time Louisa Adams’s extraordinary passage. An evocative history of the experience of travel in the days of carriages and kings, Mrs. Adams in Winter offers a moving portrait of a lady, her difficult marriage, and her conflicted sense of what it meant to be a woman caught between worlds

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book on a whim while looking through books on CD. It sounded interesting, and I have a goal to read more nonfiction this year. What I tend to forget about nonfiction is that it has the added magic of being REAL. (Well, I know you have to take bias into consideration...but still...) This book made me think a lot about how history is disseminated, being a woman, traveling, marriage, the precariousness of truth in relationships, and what it really means to be tough. I could have asked myself those questions while reading a fictional book, but the thing about fiction is that it's always easier for people to do stuff when they aren't real and when they aren't faced with choices that actually make a difference in their personal history. The fact that Mrs. Louisa Adams had to make choices with a real husband, a real set of in-laws, a real family, a real society, and a real self in mind makes this book (and what it has to say) richer. I will be picking up more nonfiction on CD very soon. :)

[David Jacobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a biography about a minor figure in American history, during the less-consequential early years of her life. But, it is an interesting story: the journey of a woman, traveling alone, across eastern Europe and into the tempest of the Hundred Days.

The story of the journey is what is of greatest interest. We learn about the logistics of travel in the early 19th Century—of post houses and postilions—and about the contemporary political scene.

The author intersperses this tale with flashbacks that give the backstory of the lives of Louisa Adams and John Quincy Adams, but does not do a good job. All of the most interesting information—about how they came to meet and marry, and how Louisa came to be living alone in Saint Petersburg—is confined to the fifth of the six chapters. The flashbacks in the preceding chapters oddly assume a knowledge of this broader backstory and are less interesting. We are given, for example, a roll-call of all the nobles Mrs. Adams met when she was in Berlin in 1798.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generously giving an extra star solely due to the subject matter. It's one of the drawbacks occasionally to non-fiction--you'll find a subject so absorbing and fascinating that even the dry and somewhat self-defeating narrative can't dim its luster. In a way, it does make me wonder what makes these masochistic authors pick these subjects--eventually I grew to suspect that O'Brien has lukewarm sympathy to its main character, and is more concerned with units of Russian measurement or pulling a fast one on the reader than the task at hand. I notice other reviewers also note his strange antipathy to his subject and some of his REALLY questionable wording when it comes to things like pregnancy.

Anyways, back in the first throes of my de Stael love last year (don't worry, I still primarily consider her my political lodestar)--in one of those de Stael books, it mentioned while Germaine was crisscrossing the continent avoiding Jacobins or Napoleon, a future first lady was also doing epic journeys. Intrigued and wanting a US perspective on the history I was reading I ordered this book. It's sat at the bottom of my to-read stack for better part of a year--part of the problem was the extremely dull solid blue cover of my edition--but I'm still glad I decided to knock out the oldest on my list. And too bad--de Stael does pop up in this book too, when she visits St. Petersburg during their stay--John Quincy Adams met with her but disappointingly his wife stayed home.

Louisa was the first foreign born first lady (until Melania joined her)--though that fun fact always pissed her off, she considered herself American, though she never did fit in in America--and at the time chronicled here (Feb - March, 1815), had lived 32 of her 36 years in Europe. Of somewhat dubious background (her parents both probable bastards) of an American father & English mother. Her parents though were unusual in that while not educated themselves, sent all their children off to be educated, including the girls. During the Revolutionary War, they took refuge in France, during the worst of the French Revolution, safety in England. Which is where she met John Quincy Adams, who swept off her feet by basically lying about who he was, trapping her in a shitty marriage, that verged on physically abusive (the make-up scrubbing scenes) to definitely emotionally abusive. Even as an old lady cataloging all her marital regrets in her diary, it seems pretty clear that today they would have been divorced, probably within the first few months since it went downhill during the honeymoon.

Funny how Quincy Adams has been back in the news lately with the recently discovered photo of him--with people raving over his socks. Socks were probably courtesy of Mrs. Adams, since he dressed like a bum and had to be forced to bathe and change clothes. I know Quincy Adams is considered one of our smartest presidents and one of the best Secretary of States--but he definitely was also not someone you would want to deal with on a personal level. In 1811 though, Russia opened up diplomatic relations with the United States for the first time and Quincy Adams was the first ambassador, taking his wife and one of their children along to the post in St. Petersburg.

The Adams come off here almost as Addams Family instead, and I wish the author had included more of the interfamilial dynamics. Abigail was the universe which they all revolved so when she demanded their two eldest children, claiming grandma power, Louisa dutifully handed them over (both children grew up to be suicidal alcoholics who died very young) but kept her youngest one, who grew up to start the first Presidential Library, and was her companion on the epic carriage ride. Again, I wish there was also more detail in this book on the court of Tsar Alexander too, but that's only briefly shown.

The book stuck very closely though to those 3 months on the road and it goes into extensive detail about various units of measurement and money and the sheer difficulty of international travel in the 1800s, as the author follows her route. There were actual speed limits--who knew? Russian was around 9 mph, France 6, Prussia 4. Louisa traveled during the worst month for weather, so had to pay less for horses and carriages since price was lower, but way more for being ferried across treacherous rivers. She traveled during an uneasy peace for most of the voyage with the country side full of brigands and discharged soldiers, but had to hurry and beat Napoleon to Paris as the 100 Days army was only a few days behind her. She also traveled alone with a small child in all of this (Quincy Adams went ahead and seemed to be pretty carefree about their dangerous voyage).

Luckily she traveled with a ton of official paperwork with testimonials from Russia, France and the US that she was a VIP. Even so there were lots of uncomfortable and potentially rapey parts of her voyage. She detailed her travel in her 1840 memoirs (entitled The Adventures of a Nobody) which I must read, afraid that she would forget it, and he notes that her travelogue doesn't mention ethnography or geography or culture like most other travel journals but "Rather, her 1815 travel narrative was a story about moving through a landscape of people, but especially of women. Mrs. Adams thought more than was usual about what it meant to be a woman, and how women were viewed by men, and about how women dealt with men. In her writings, women were incomparably more important than men. Her story of 1815 was self-consciously fashioned as a metaphor for how a woman could manage the difficult business of life, by fighting off the violent brutalities of men and enlisting the intelligent sympathies of women."

So yeah, Louisa Adams was the hero I never knew I needed (a nerdy child she spent her ribbon money on Milton) and the one of the drawbacks of the book is while she could have been crushed in a carriage upset or murdered by robbers or Napoleonic cavalry, she didn't. The book has way too many "this could have happened but didn't" hypotheticals. Her carriage averaged around 10 hours per day and got to Paris in time. And she took the quicker more dangerous route that everyone warned her against and wanted "to show that many undertakings which appear very difficult and arduous to my Sex, are by no means so trying as imagination forever depicts them."

The author does the old shocking reveal of tragic backstory at the very end of the book, when she gets to her destination, which definitely should have been the beginning of the book, and I absolutely hate it when historians do this. It's history, not Shutter Island--gotcha stuff cheapens the subject. Reunited with her cold fish of a husband, we discover that the very day Moscow burned, her baby died of dysentery in St. Petersburg (or by incompetent surgeon lancing her gums when told not to). Those parts of the diary had me all teary as she collapsed, and Quincy Adams was sad for a day or two and then totally over it--"perpetual coldness" "not a comforter, not a friend" passages in her diary during this time. So surprise! She makes it to Paris but she's still grief stricken of death of one child and guilty over the two she handed over, with her marriage a crumbling "wasteland"...the End.

Again I like more followups in my history, but I did like the attention paid to Queen Luise of Prussia. It's funny how nice and welcoming the Prussian royal court was and how so many of the elderly dragons in Queen Vicky's day show up here as young courtiers--and Louisa was particular friends with a lot of them--some she hoped a little less friendly like Queen Victoria's wicked uncles and a somewhat handsy Tsar. I'll have to read a more comprehensive book on her next.

[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is much more meandering than Louisa Adams' journey from St. Petersburg to Paris in Feb - Mar 1815. It's incredibly hard to follow. Each city where she stops comes with a "why this city mattered to her" and brings forth a cast of characters that are hard to follow. And some parts, where he's disputing her diary of the journey, seem like the author has a personal dislike of her. The frenetic pace of "In 1796, she was living in such-and-such. In 1835, when she wrote of her time in 1815 in such-and-such..." was difficult to follow and unnecessary. Actually, the book seems somewhat unnecessary - like he was struggling to construct a narrative out of a periodic diary. I may have learned something about Louisa & John Quincy Adams, but this was a most unenjoyable way to do so.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only objection to this book was that I wish the author had given us the material in the second half -- that described Louisa and John Quincy's marriage -- in the first half. It would have provided muh deeper emotional context for Louisa's journey. A woman traveling toward her husband across war-torn Europe is engaging but dry -- a woman traveling toward a complicated, troubling marriage is even more intriguing. The last two sentences of the book described this theme to such perfection they took my breath.

[Tom]

Great review in American Scholar Spring 2010 makes me want to read this book.

www.theamericanscholar.org/a-long-col...

(oops, sorry, just discovered that AS has not made this review available online yet. buy the journal itself; it's worth it, as it also has great essay "Reading in a Digital Age." actually, this essay is available on AS's website)

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book because I’ve long been fascinated by Louisa Catherine Adams, one of the most complex first ladies the United States ever had. She was born in London and grew up there and in France. Given the nativism that is such a constant factor in American political life, this made her suspect. Her supposed foreignness was compounded by being married to John Quincy Adams, offspring of John Adams, the second president. Neither the poverty nor the plain habits of the Adamses could shake the public perception that the family had aristocratic pretensions. And since her husband was tapped for a series of diplomatic assignments, much of her married life was spent abroad, until he became Secretary of State in the Monroe administration. This added to the suspicion that she wasn’t sufficiently American.
One more factor ensured that hers would be a complicated life: For all his ability and admirable qualities, it wasn’t easy to be married to John Quincy Adams.
Louisa took to writing in her later years (she had always loved reading and visiting the theater). One book she published was an account of the forty-day journey she undertook in the Napoleonic wars’ waning days. Her husband had left his post as Ambassador to Russia to negotiate the peace treaty after the War of 1812, leaving his wife and their son behind. In the depth of winter, she set out to rejoin him in Paris.
This incident forms the basis of O’Brien’s book. Her account is sketchy and, as she was aware, inaccurate in many details because her diary was incomplete. O’Brien fleshes out her account. His research establishes the route she probably took from St. Petersburg through Berlin to Paris. In addition, he uses incidents of the journey to fill in the back story of her life. For instance, in Chapter Five, her uncertainty about whether John Quincy would be at the border when she entered France becomes the jumping-off point to describe the ups and downs of their marriage.
When I say that O’Brien fleshes out Louisa’s account, that’s an understatement. I admire all the research the author has done, but did he need to include everything he found out about every town she passed through and everyone she met (as well as a few she didn’t meet)? I almost bailed in Chapter One, when the account of Louisa’s experiences at the Czar’s court includes the names of every architect who built every building in the royal complex. The ostensible purpose is to speculate on “what she felt” (a phrase repeated three times in the first chapter alone), although that purpose might have been served better by describing what she would have seen, rather than citing the year each building was built. Granted, a historian should ascertain all these things, but he doesn’t need to share it all.
Still, I’m glad I read the book, although I feel it would have been more effective if the text had been trimmed by at least twenty percent.
O’Brien doesn’t overemphasize one thing the story signifies, although he does point it out. In an age when women were thought inferior to men (an assumption John Quincy shared and which Louisa didn’t totally reject), she was aware that the resourcefulness and resolve she had to display to master the challenges and dangers of this journey not only served to show what she was capable of, but of what women in general were.

[Trenchologist · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading on a very snowy day in a very cold week -- on purpose -- and the day I finished the sun finally, fully, came back out. Nice.

I found this absorbing as both a narrative and as a lens to view history. The journey of Mrs Adams is told but there's so much more here, and her personal biography, the notable places and people she touched, her relationships from intimate to country -- all ably interlarded between the nuts and bolts of her likely route and the challenges within to get to Paris from St Petersburg.

I can't say as I think I'd have liked either Mrs Adams or her husband. But then I do believe I'd find each of them engaging and worthwhile (limited?) company. Fascinating and flawed people who definitely did not mesh. I was thinking "why did they even get married?" well before the author gets to that; which he does and does so with depth and sensitivity.

The ending punctuated with the way Mrs and Mr Adams recalled her arrival at Paris was a lovely stroke.

Mrs Adams became notable to history for being a First Lady, and a pretty formidable one at that. I find her personal story and sense of her own self clashing with marrying into a patrician American family for lesser conditions, comforts, and slanting away from her innate sympathies and loyalties. But that's what she did, and in a lot of ways, enduring this journey because she had to and then managing it both with capability and yet skirting the worst of possible hardships and challenges, is a great metaphor to her whole life. Never quite settled, never quite satisfied, never quite belonging; just enough social importance to make a difference but never the pinnacle, but determined to get there. Which -- yes indeed, well spotted me lol. And well met, O'Brien.

To wit, I quote a long but worthy passage:

"This movement into the twilight was one reason why she liked the traveling, why later she remembered it with such fondness, and why she attributed so much importance to what she had done. It was not that, in traveling, she found places to belong, except perhaps Berlin. As she admitted, she was 'alone, and without rank; a mere voyageuse.' It was that, for those forty days, she was under no pressure to belong. She gazed out of the windows of her carriage, she saw the passing scenes, she stopped to eat and rest, she coped with problems, and no one gave her orders, no one scowled at a faux pas, no one excluded her. For once, she was in control. The carriage left in the morning she she said; it stopped when she commanded. To be sure, the journey mimicked her life in that, over the years, she seemed always in transition and seldom at rest. In a deeper sense, however, it defied the pattern of her life, which had been marked by transitions she had not sought and changes she could not control."

[Annabel Levy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wavered between giving this book a 3 or a 4. I chose 4 because it is so thoroughly researched, well written, and evocative. It paints a portrait of the woman and the journey quite beautifully. That said, it is researched and detailed almost to a fault.

It is fascinating to learn about the early 19th century Russian Empire, its society, court and broader society, the lands through which Louisa traveled and the way she did so. I enjoyed discovering the fascinating characters she met and cities she visited. Most of all, I enjoyed his characterization of Louisa herself, a former First Lady of whom little is really known and who had something of a colorful background, a rich inner life and a complex nature.

That said, the author goes on for a little too long about some details. I needed to learn about what the Post Road system was and how it worked, and what she experienced while traversing it. I didn't need paragraph after paragraph of minutae about its inner mechanics and I personally could have done without all the math. This isn't the sort of book one reads to understand 19th century European comparative measurements, though learning about the currency was more interesting.

The writer also gets a little off in the weeds about the details of the trip when it comes to how well she recollected it when she wrote about it in later years. It would be one thing to mention it in passing, as in "she recalled staying here two days though it was probably only one" or "she mentioned passing by such-and-such river but she more likely went by yada-yada hills," but instead we get a long comparison of where she said she went and where she probably went based on his meticulous study of the routes that existed at the time. We get it, he researched. No need to show it off quite so much.

One reviewer mentioned the author's insidious sexism, particularly how he talks of young women "getting themselves pregnant." Yes, that's there. The writing as a whole is, for lack of a better word, old-fashioned, but I can get past that. He mentions several times other travelers (mostly men) who wrote memoirs of similar journeys. In a way, this reads like one of the memoirs, with similar descriptive language and cadence. But it is far more interesting because Louisa is brought to life. It's not all about the journey, it's about her. So it isn't dry, just a little musty sometimes.

I recommend the book for its subject matter, its quality, and its sense of place and history. It could have been better, a bit less starchy and more lively, but it's a good book.

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't judge a book on it's cover or in this place subject.

This was huge let down for me as I had been looking forward to it since reading the biography of John Quincy Adams. What could be more interesting and entertaining than reading about a mother and child left on their own to cover more than 1k miles from Russia to France across recently worn torn Europe from the devastating Napoleonic Wars and towards the end of the journey the resurgence of Napoleon?!

Except this book is only 20% if that and 80% the past history of Mrs Adams, her family, JQA, JQA family and random history of the places she visited on her travels. I mean at one point I read about 20 pages on just back story only to read about 5 pages of actual journey than back to history of some place or back story of her family.

When the author does get into the story of the journey it is a wild read and very edge of your seat frightening journey but it's never constant as it is always interrupted by back story.


In the end if you are looking to read all about her journey this isn't the book for you.. but if you know little of JQA or Mrs Adams you maybe happy with this book if you are looking for back story to be 80% of this book.

Actual journey story 5/5
Book 2/5

[Jessica Samuelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like many modern Americans have at least heard of Abigail Adams, but I for one had never even given a thought to her daughter-in-law Louisa. Like Abigail, Louisa married a young man who would eventually become president of the United States of America. That's where all similarities end.

Though the main substance of this book involves Louisa's solo journey from St. Petersburg to Paris in 1815, it also explores other stretches of her life as the wife of John Quincy Adams. John's political position as an American diplomat meant that Luisa had to leave the London of her youth for such far-flung regions as Prussia, Massachusetts, and Russia. Not only that, but as a diplomatic couple, they were expected to blend in seamlessly to whatever sort of culture they were sent to--from New England farm communities to the Prussian royal court.

The book also includes several insights into both the locations Louisa visited during her travels and the historical context of those places. Even the logistics of how to physically travel from St. Petersburg to Paris in 1815 is pretty fascinating.

[Julia Alberino · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but to be honest, I found it tedious almost to the point of being unreadable. I'll give the author his due for researching the material, but found it pointless that he at times quarreled with what was in Mrs. Adams' memoirs, only to admit that he really didn't have a certain alternative that would refute what she had written. I also could have done without the elaborate descriptions of what different types of carriages existed at the time and how they were constructed (though some may find these details fascinating). If this hadn't been the monthly selection of my book group, I would most likely have abandoned the book 50 pages in. The only reason I gave it a second star is that there are about 25 pages describing the relationship between Louisa and John Quincy Adams that were interesting to me. I would not recommend this book.

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the fact that Louisa Adams undertook and completed this journey by herself and at the exact time Napoleon was storming his way back to Paris is one of the most badass things in history. I feel pretty strongly about that characterization, and I hoped to feel just as strongly about this story of her journey. Unfortunately, the parts that went on and on describing what routes she may have taken and listing what sites happened to be in those areas at the time really slowed down the narrative. Additionally, I really enjoyed the more biographical section of the story, but it felt like it just got inserted into the middle of the book.

[Daniel Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes readers into early 19th century Europe, as Mrs. Adams, the wife of John Quincy Adams, completes a winter trek from St. Petersburg to Paris. I'm giving the book four stars rather than five because of some inherent weaknesses of the source material - Mrs. Adams wrote down her memoirs of this trip many years after the fact, and the author has to work from a thin account. Still, I learned a lot, including the meaning of the word "postillion" - it's a horse carriage driver, particularly one who's hired temporarily to drive a carriage from one post station to the next. A memorable book - I heard the audio version.

[Kathy Massie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm neutral on this book. I can't say I liked it but I didn't dislike it either. At times it was hard to read when they were talking about so many people and places with names I couldn't pronounce. Of course, since it's about her journey from Russia to France, there were lots of descriptions of the routes she took. I found these to be the less interesting parts of the book. I enjoyed it much more when they talked about her life and her relationships with her family and with her in-laws and John Quincy Adams. Overall, I'm glad I read it and it made me want to read a biography of her to learn more about her.

[Amelia Valentino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mrs. Adams in Winter follows Louisa Adams' journey from St. Petersburg throughout Eastern Europe and Prussia to Paris to join her husband during the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Based on her memoirs and diaries, O'Brien look at the devastation of Europe, as well as the international politics of the United States in Russia and Europe.

It reads as both a biography of Louisa Adams and history of Eastern Europe in this time, and it becomes muddled, messy, and boring. It did make me interested in Louisa Adams as a figure and I will probably check out a biography on her.

[Angie Fehl · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first few chapters seemed promising as an entertaining read, but after that it just turned into a huge info dump and became pretty tedious to get through. I was hoping for a more riveting read about the trip itself, didn't really need an in-depth backstory on every. single. person. Mrs. Adams met. There were certain things here that made me more interested to learn more about Mrs. Adams as a person... but from a different source.

[Edwina Book Anaconda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The narrator has a beautiful, soothing voice (best suited for children's bedtime stories) that kept lulling me to sleep. I finally decided to wash windows while listening to this, just to stay awake.

This book is pretty tedious, plodding along slower than the horses pulling her carriage through the snow and mud. There were some interesting bits, buried deep, scattered throughout and the cover is beautiful, hence the 2 stars.

Recommended for insomniacs.