Congressman’s Wife, a Story of American Politics

A Washington marriage becomes the battleground for something larger than love. When Mrs. Briggs wields her influence not through the salon but through strategy, she discovers that power in this city flows through channels no one teaches women to navigate. Barry's 1912 novel captures a capital still finding its footing in the modern age, where reform and rot intertwine, and a wife's 'capriciousness' might be the only honest thing in a room full of calculated men. The novel examines what Americans were beginning to suspect about their institutions and the people who run them.