Benjamin Franklin's Bastard by Sally Cabot

"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones."

              -Benjamin Franklin

I am something of an American history buff and especially enjoy the colonial and revolutionary periods. I have seen the musical "1776" several times and very much enjoy how our founding fathers are portrayed in it. I have always found Benjamin Franklin to be a fascinating character, a man of many talents.

There is a line in "1776" about Franklin's son, who at that time was the royal governor of New Jersey, in which Franklin refers to him as the "bastard." I don't believe I knew that he meant it literally. The novel cover has a subtitle that reads "A father, a son, and the women who loved them" and that is a pretty good summary. Anne is a prostitute, mother of Franklin's illegitimate son, William, and Deborah is Franklin's wife who ends up helping to raise William.

I watched a television show about Benjamin Franklin at the same time I was reading the novel and it was very enlightening, corroborating some of the history in the novel and revealing some of the fiction. For example, it seemed that Franklin did have a weakness for women throughout his life, though there is little proof of their identities. One of the main characters in the novel is Anne, who the author admits is fictionalized, and of course the TV show didn't mention that name. One important fact revealed in both was the closeness of father and son in the early years and the irreparable rift in the relationship caused by the American revolution when William remains a staunch loyalist while Ben becomes one of the greatest patriots.

I am rating this novel a 4. I enjoyed it very much and though I discovered more of Franklin's "bad habits" he is still one of my American heroes!