FREE LINCOLN IN THE BARDO PDF George Saunders | 368 pages | 14 Feb 2017 | RANDOM HOUSE | 9780812995343 | English | United States NPR Choice page The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Saunders, George. Lincoln in the Bardo. Random House, InWillie Lincoln died of typhoid fever at the age of The novel opens in the bardo, which is an intermediary state between life and the afterlife. Willie Lincoln materializes in the bardo and is greeted by Hans Vollman—a deceased printer who Lincoln in the Bardo killed at the age of 46 by a falling support beam—and Roger Bevins III—a young man who took his life after being rebuffed by a young man named Gilbert with whom Bevins was in love. The doctor believed that Willie was merely sick with a cold and would soon recover. In the White House, they entertained many important diplomats, politicians, and military officers while Willie lay sick in his bed. Willie died not long after this night, as it turned out that he was sick with typhoid fever. In the bardo, everyone that Willie meets is a person has died and been buried in the same cemetery as Willie, and even though they are in the bardo, they are able to view the cemetery around them. They also believe that they are not dead but merely sick. However, Vollman and Bevins encourage Willie to pass on to the next stage of the afterlife, as they know that the bardo is a dangerous place for young people. They knew a young person in the bardo—a young woman named Lincoln in the Bardo Traynor—who stayed in the bardo for too long and became trapped there forever. Lincoln hugs the body and speaks to it before leaving. This gives Willie and the other people in the bardo hope that Willie may be able to Lincoln in the Bardo to his former state with the help of his father. The people of the bardo tell Willie their stories so that he may help them once he has returned to his life. However, Willie is soon grabbed by a malevolent tendril, as had happened to Elise Traynor when the bardo began to consume her. Lincoln returns to the mausoleum because he realizes he forgot to lock it. While Vollman and Bevins are away from the mausoleum, Willie converses with the Reverend Everly Thomas, another occupant of the bardo. It is revealed to the reader that, unlike the other people in the bardo, Reverend Thomas actually knows that he is dead. However, when he died and sat for judgment in the afterlife, he was cast back into the bardo for some inscrutable reason. Reverend Thomas believes that it is because he has committed some unrealized sin that he must account for. Abraham Lincoln arrives at the mausoleum again to lock it. Vollman and Bevins urge Willie to merge with his father to hear his thoughts, but before Lincoln in the Bardo can do so, Abraham Lincoln begins to walk away. Then, more tendrils burst from the ground to grab Willie. They are possessed by the spirits of unrepentant sinners. Hearing these voices describe their crimes without remorse, Reverend Thomas becomes more Lincoln in the Bardo in his own sense of morality, and he tricks the tendrils into letting go of Willie Lincoln in the Bardo a moment. Thomas then grabs Willie and attempts to run with him to safety. The tendrils knock them down, and Thomas is rewarded for his bravery by being allowed to pass into the next stage of the afterlife. In the chapel, Willie merges with his father and realizes that he is dead. He declares this to the other people of the bardo and then passes on to the next stage of the afterlife. At the same time, Lincoln is able to overcome his grief for his son, and he recommits to his resolutions as President in the midst of the Civil War. This includes Vollman and Bevins. Read more from the Study Guide. Browse all BookRags Study Guides. All rights reserved. Toggle navigation. Sign Up. Sign In. View the Study Pack. View the Lesson Plans. Plot Summary. Chapters 1 — Chapters 26 - Chapters 41 — Chapters 64 — Chapters 83 — Free Quiz. Symbols and Symbolism. Themes and Motifs. Tenth of December: Stories. Congratulations, by the Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness. CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. In Persuasion Nation. Print Word PDF. This section contains words approx. Settings Themes and Lincoln in the Bardo Styles. View Lincoln in the Bardo FREE sample. More summaries and Lincoln in the Bardo for teaching or studying Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel. Lincoln in the Bardo | The Booker Prizes Just when he was finally about to make love to his much younger wife for the first time, he was struck by a light beam, rendering him unable to consummate their marriage. Bevins eventually tells his own story, too, explaining that he slit his wrists because Gilberthis lover, ended their furtive relationship. As soon as he cut himself, though, Lincoln in the Bardo regretted it, realizing that life is a beautiful gift. Like all the souls in the Bardo, Vollman and Bevins physically represent their attachments to the real world, attachments that ultimately keep them in the Bardo, a transitional space Lincoln in the Bardo to be a stopover for souls moving from life to the afterlife. Vollman, for his part, has an eternal and very large erection, which he must drag around wherever he goes. Bevins, on the other hand, has many eyes, noses, ears, and hands, all of which multiply when he thinks about the vast Lincoln in the Bardo pleasures of being alive. As these two souls explain their physical appearances, they take note of Willie Lincolna young boy who has just arrived in the Bardo. As Vollman and Bevins try to convince Willie to move on from the Bardo, their friend Lincoln in the Bardo. Like Vollman and Bevins, he too tries to get Willie to leave, and the three men take the boy to see the Traynor girlthe only other young person they know to have stayed in the Bardo. When the group almost leaves, though, she turns into her human form and tells Willie her tale, explaining that she always wanted a baby but never grew old enough to have intercourse, despite the fact that many suitors were interested in her. Listening to the Traynor girl has the intended effect on Willie. Turning around, they see Abraham Lincoln walking toward them. As politicians made merriment downstairs, Willie was upstairs succumbing to his illness. All the while, Mr. This, of course, proved false, and Willie died several weeks later—a fact that invites equal parts criticism and sympathy from the nation. Beside himself with grief, Lincoln tells himself that he can return to the mausoleum whenever he wants. That is a promise. They then notice that tendrils have started wrapping around him, trying to fix him in Lincoln in the Bardo forever. While the Reverend tries to uproot these tendrils, Vollman and Bevins sneak off to find Lincoln again, hoping to convince him Lincoln in the Bardo returning so that Willie can enter him. Thankfully, Lincoln has forgotten to lock the mausoleum, so Vollman and Bevins focus their attention on the lock lying in his pocket. Before long, he wraps his hand around it and realizes he must return. Indeed, after a life of priesthood, he peacefully died, at which point he found himself walking along a path with two strangers. One, who walked in the front, was wearing a yellow swimsuit. The second was wearing a funeral suit. Before long, the group came upon a diamond palace where a Christ-emissary sat before a large bejeweled door. Calling the bathing-suited man forward, the emissary and two helpers considered at how the man lived. Finding the results quite favorable, they danced forth and sent him through the diamond doors, giving the Reverend a glimpse of heaven. The doors then shut, and the second man went forward. When their initial reaction suggested that the Reverend had lived even more disgracefully than the second man, the Reverend turned and ran. After running as far as he could, the Lincoln in the Bardo collapsed, and when Lincoln in the Bardo woke up, he was in the Bardo, where he has remained ever since. Lincoln returns to the mausoleum once again, wanting one more look at his son. Realizing that the tendrils only prevent Willie from moving forward, backward, or side to side, the Reverend, Bevins, and Vollman push the boy through the mausoleum roof to be with his father. Unfortunately, the groundskeeper, Mandersappears in this moment to check on the president, and the two men agree to go back together once Lincoln takes a moment alone with his son. Manders agrees and waits for him outside, but Willie is now held to the wall by tendrils, preventing him from going into his father. As Bevins sets to work untangling the boy, Vollman tries to delay Lincoln, who is in the midst of saying goodbye for the final time while also feeling guilty, for he now knows the pain of losing a child—a form of grief he feels he has inflicted on thousands of people because the Civil Lincoln in the Bardo rages on at his command. Trying to get him to turn around, Lincoln in the Bardo, Vollman, and the Reverend jump into his body and convince all the spectating souls to do the same. Suddenly, then, Lincoln holds an entire mass of souls, including black men, white men, black women, and white women.