‘ One of the most perceptive books ever written about Washington.’ -Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

An instant bestseller when first published anonymously in 1880, Democracy is the quintessential American political novel, an incisive and entertaining caricature of corruption-in individuals and in government-by a descendant of a prominent political family.

Madeleine Lee, a wealthy young society widow, comes to Washington, D.C., to understand the workings of power.

But once she becomes involved with the influential Senator Silas Ratcliffe, whose political maneuvers are surpassed only by his courtship tactics, she quickly sees enough of government and the corrupting effects of power to last her a lifetime.