Heiresses by Laura Thompson

Heiresses by Laura Thompson

New York Times bestselling author Laura Thompson returns with Heiresses, a fascinating look at the lives of heiresses throughout history and the often tragic truth beneath the gilded surface.

Heiresses: surely they are among the luckiest women on earth. Are they not to be envied, with their private jets and Chanel wardrobes and endless funds? Yet all too often those gilded lives have been beset with trauma and despair. Before the 20th century a wife's inheritance was the property of her husband, making her vulnerable to kidnap, forced marriages, even confinement in an asylum. And in modern times, heiresses fell victim to fortune-hunters who squandered their millions.

Heiresses tells the stories of these women: Mary Davies, who inherited London's most valuable real estate, and was bartered from the age of twelve; Consuelo Vanderbilt, the original American Dollar Heiress, forced into a loveless marriage; Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress who married seven times and died almost penniless; Patty Hearst, heiress to a newspaper fortune who was arrested for terrorism. However, there are also stories of achievement: Angela Burdett-Coutts, who became one of the greatest philanthropists of Victorian England; Nancy Cunard, who lived off her mother's fortune and became a pioneer of the civil rights movement; Daisy Fellowes, elegant linchpin of interwar high society and noted fashion editor.

Heiresses is about the lives of the rich, who--as F. Scott Fitzgerald said--are 'different'. But it is also a bigger story about how all women fought their way to equality, and sometimes even found autonomy and fulfilment.

Laura Thompson read English at Oxford. Her first book, The Dogs, won the Somerset Maugham Award. While living in Newmarket she wrote two books about horse racing, followed by a biography of Nancy Mitford (reissued 2019), a major study of Agatha Christie and a book about Lord Lucan. The Six, a group biography of the Mitford sisters, published in the US in 2016, was a New York Times bestseller. Her most recent book, Rex v Edith Thompson, was shortlisted for a CWA Gold Dagger award, and her biography of Agatha Christie - recently published in the US - was nominated for a 2019 Edgar Allan Poe Award.

SKU	Non disponible
ISBN 13	9781250202734
ISBN 10	1250202736
Titre	Heiresses
Auteur	Laura Thompson
État	Non disponible
Type de reliure	Hardback
Éditeur	St. Martin's Press
Année de publication	2022-02-15
Nombre de pages	384
Note de couverture	La photo du livre est présentée à titre d'illustration uniquement. La reliure, la couverture ou l'édition réelle peuvent varier.
Note	Non disponible