Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies By: Laura Thompson [Audiobook]

Author: Laura Thompson
Narrated by: Laura Thompson

This audiobook is read by the author.

New York Times best-selling 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 12; 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.  

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

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Book Information
================
 Title:                  Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies
 Book Copyright:         2021 Laura Thompson
 Recording Copyright:    2021 W F Howes
 Publisher:              W. F. Howes Ltd
 Genre:                  Biographies & Memoirs
 Author:                 Laura Thompson
 Narrator:               Laura Thompson
 Ripper:                 familiarr_Strangerr
 Source Format:          Audible AAXC
 Source Sample Rate:     44.1 kHz
 Source Channels:        2
 Source Bitrate:         128 kbps
 Lossless Encode:        Yes
 Encoded Codec:          AAC
 Encoded Sample Rate:    44.1 kHz
 Encoded Channels:       2
 Encoded Bitrate:        128 kbps
 Encode Size:            711 MiB
 Release Date:           02-Sep-2021
 Duration:               13 hours, 2 minutes, 47 seconds
 Chapters:               21
Book Description
================
A razor-sharp, beautifully written survey of the world of the wealthy heiress - glittering and gleaming, flawed and fascinating - from the 17th to the 21st century.
We fantasise about what we would do if we inherited a fortune: the house on Cheyne Walk? The Manolo Blahniks? The racehorses? But what would it be like, never to have to dream in that way?
Laura Thompson explores the historical phenomenon of the heiress in four inviting categories. First, the Estate Builders, women like Elizabeth Sloan, whose father Sir Hans owned the land that is now Chelsea. The Patrons - those heiresses who tried to do something with their money - feature Winnaretta Singer, inheritor of the sewing-machine fortune, whose salon in Paris showcased work by Debussy, Faure and Ravel. Party Girls enjoy their money without shame or conscience. After the death of hostess Ronnie Greville, high-living illegitimate daughter of a Scottish brewer death, 286 bottles of Bollinger 1928 were discovered in her Mayfair home. The Rebels include Alice Silverthorne, who walked her black panther along the Promenade des Anglais and shot her lover in the stomach at the Gare du Nord.
A famous heiress once said: 'Life is less sad with money.' It should be true. But is it? Laura Thompson's Heiresses takes the listener on a sparklingly enlightening search for the answer.

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