Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

by Walter Isaacson

recalcitrant,

prerogative

entrancing

Catherine Ray

advances

How did his loyal and patient wife, Deborah, fit into this type of long-distance flirtation? Oddly enough, he seemed to use her as a shield, both with Caty and the other young women he later toyed with, to keep his relationships just on the safe side of propriety. He invariably invoked Deborah’s name and praised her virtues in almost every letter he wrote to Caty. It was as if he wanted Caty to keep her ardor in perspective and to realize that, though his affection was real, his flirtations were merely playful. Or, perhaps, once his sexual advances had been rebuffed, he wanted to show (or to pretend) that they had not been serious.

bequeathing

lecherousness

Of all shades of feeling, this one, the one the French call amitié amoureuse—a little beyond the platonic but short of the grand passion—is perhaps the most exquisite.

tenure

whirlwind,

brimming

inducement,

procured

heeding

foe

aegis

donned

stint

he hurried his return so that he arrived late at night to avoid the triumphant welcome that his supporters had planned.

balked

Throughout his life, Franklin would find himself torn (and amused) by the conflict between his professed desire to acquire the virtue of humility and his natural thirst for acclaim.

instanced

“chagrined”

blush

obstinacy

evade

prudence,

soothing

doted

peripatetic

jarringly

indisposed;

tender

assuage

sanguine

bereft

With 750,000 inhabitants and growing rapidly, London in the 1750s was the largest city in Europe and second only to Beijing (pop: 900,000) in the world.

Although Philadelphia was the largest city in America, it was a tiny village by comparison, with only 23,000 inhabitants (about the size of Franklin, Wisconsin, or Franklin, Massachusetts, today).

burgeoning

verbatim

cordial;

rancorous

contempt

countenance

solicitous:

infirmities

yearning

ardor

airs