The art of the possible

Shakespeare was a propagandist, Dickens a polemicist. All notable literature is in some sense political. In this political season, three novels symbolize three centuries. ''Democracy" (Modern Library, paperback, $12.95) describes the late 19th century, and Edwin O'Connor's ''The Last Hurrah" (Back Bay, paperback, $14.95) the mid-20th century. The 21st century's most relevant novel so far was published in 1907, ''The Secret Agent," by Joseph Conrad (Oxford University, paperback, $9.95).

Adams invented the ''Washington novel." The original remains timelier than Tom Clancy's whiz-bang narratives of the 1980s or lugubrious 1950s sagas like ''Advise and Consent" (of whose author Jimmy Cannon once wrote, ''Reading Allen Drury is like swimming in oatmeal").

Adams, scion of presidents, was an essayist and historian. Before finishing his nine-volume history of the Jefferson and Madison administrations, he wrote ''Democracy" and published it anonymously on April Fools' Day, 1880. It became a bestseller because he defined the capital's characters with deadpan accuracy. Two sisters, Sybil and Madeleine, are as strong as any portrayed by Jane Austen. The villain of ''Democracy," Senator Silas P. Ratcliffe of Illinois, resembled several contemporary schemers. James G. Blaine of Maine was so enraged at the portrait that he stopped speaking to someone he thought had written it. The author kept his secret, even from his brother. The identity of ''Anonymous" was unknown until Adams died, in 1918.

A lively protagonist helps sales; in 1956, O'Connor chose Frank Skeffington, mayor of a red-brick New England city, who made many Americans think of Boston's four-term mayor, James Michael Curley. ''The Last Hurrah" was the best-selling novel in America for five months, and the phrase entered the language. William Safire's ''Political Dictionary" calls it the ''exit of a politician, especially one who has had a boisterous career."