A Great Improvisation

Franklin, France, and the Birth of America

By: Stacy Schiff

Narrated by: Susan Denaker

“In December 1776, a small boat delivered an old man to France.” So begins a dazzling narrative account of Benjamin Franklin’s French mission, the most exacting—and momentous—eight years of his life.

When Franklin embarked, the colonies were without money, munitions, gunpowder, or common cause; like all adolescents, they were to discover that there was a difference between declaring independence and achieving it. To close that gap Franklin was dispatched to Paris, amid great secrecy, across a winter sea thick with enemy cruisers. He was 70 years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessed of the most rudimentary French. He was also among the most famous men in the world.

Franklin well understood that he was off on the greatest gamble of his career. But despite minimal direction from Congress he was soon outwitting the British secret service and stirring passion for a republic in an absolute monarchy.

In A Great Improvisation Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff offers an utterly fresh and thrilling account of Franklin’s Parisian adventure and of America’s debut on the world stage. Schiff weaves her tale of international intrigue from new and little-known primary sources, working from a host of diplomatic archives, family papers, and intelligence reports. From her pages emerges a particularly human Founding Father, as well as a vivid sense of how fragile, improvisational, and international was our country’ s bid for independence.

no stated chapter breaks

Clarity of enunciation, but repeated lines. When the narrator corrects a line, many times the previous line with error is not edited out of the audio, which makes for an odd, deja vu listening experience. Next, there are no breaks. Chapters flow continuously. Would be better to announce "chapter 25" than to omit. Would be even better had the author taken time to title the chapters or sections. Perhaps she has done so, but the Audible format omits them. Poor.

Incredible story that is forgotten far more than it should be. Excellent writing and performance.

Incredible story that is forgotten far more than it should be. Excellent writing and performance.

Benjamin Franklin’s character was very well drawn.

Hard to discern the years with few mentions, and the offices of the various Frenchmen. An excellent revelation of Franklin’s French role in the American war of independence.

Thought it would be good

I enjoyed the Apple series based on this called Franklin. I expected to get deeper information details and connections. However, as it is with many history authors, the author tended to want to demonstrate how thoroughly her subject was researched rather than telling a cohesive story. All in all, I got bored and distracted by extraneous details that did not advance the major themes.

Great with one editing request

There are many places where the narrator repeats a sentence twice. It would be easy to edit this. Otherwise, a great book and presentation!