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Title: Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age
Author: Amanda Mackenzie Stuart
Genre: History/biography (mostly early 20th C)
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: The leader of New York society convinces a Duke to marry her daughter (against the girl's will) for her money; oddly enough, they both go on to be major feminist leaders.
Thoughts: This is one book with a second, different, book wedged in the middle.
The first half or so of this is an engaging portrait of high society life in the Gilded Age--fabulous houses, ridiculously over-the-top parties, strategic marriages. A treat for lovers of Downton Abbey, certainly.
The middle is then a history of the suffrage movement in both the US and England. Then, after women get the vote, it kind of swings back into high society with a bit of WWII thriller.
Consuelo, especially, had a fascinating life. An heiress with an overbearing mother, a Duchess at 19, a philanthropist and political force, an international scandal, a refugee from the Nazis--she had a tendency to find herself in the middle of some of the most powerful forces working through the first half of the twentieth century.
There's plenty of architecture porn to be found here, plus a number of pretty plates. The subject matter is quite interesting, but the pacing uneven as the two women's lives essentially jump genres halfway through. I'm not sure it could have been done better, but the middle kind of drags.
Author: Amanda Mackenzie Stuart
Genre: History/biography (mostly early 20th C)
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: The leader of New York society convinces a Duke to marry her daughter (against the girl's will) for her money; oddly enough, they both go on to be major feminist leaders.
Thoughts: This is one book with a second, different, book wedged in the middle.
The first half or so of this is an engaging portrait of high society life in the Gilded Age--fabulous houses, ridiculously over-the-top parties, strategic marriages. A treat for lovers of Downton Abbey, certainly.
The middle is then a history of the suffrage movement in both the US and England. Then, after women get the vote, it kind of swings back into high society with a bit of WWII thriller.
Consuelo, especially, had a fascinating life. An heiress with an overbearing mother, a Duchess at 19, a philanthropist and political force, an international scandal, a refugee from the Nazis--she had a tendency to find herself in the middle of some of the most powerful forces working through the first half of the twentieth century.
There's plenty of architecture porn to be found here, plus a number of pretty plates. The subject matter is quite interesting, but the pacing uneven as the two women's lives essentially jump genres halfway through. I'm not sure it could have been done better, but the middle kind of drags.
