The Husband Hunters
American Heiresses Who Married into the British Aristocracy
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3.8 • 89 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A deliciously told group biography of the young, rich, American heiresses who married into the impoverished British aristocracy at the turn of the twentieth century – the real women who inspired Downton Abbey
Towards the end of the nineteenth century and for the first few years of the twentieth, a strange invasion took place in Britain. The citadel of power, privilege and breeding in which the titled, land-owning governing class had barricaded itself for so long was breached. The incomers were a group of young women who, fifty years earlier, would have been looked on as the alien denizens of another world - the New World, to be precise. From 1874 - the year that Jennie Jerome, the first known 'Dollar Princess', married Randolph Churchill - to 1905, dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage, bringing with them all the fabulous wealth, glamour and sophistication of the Gilded Age.
Anne de Courcy sets the stories of these young women and their families in the context of their times. Based on extensive first-hand research, drawing on diaries, memoirs and letters, this richly entertaining group biography reveals what they thought of their new lives in England - and what England thought of them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist De Courcy (The Fishing Fleet) delivers a fascinating but surface-skimming history of the wealthy young American women novelist Edith Wharton called them the "buccaneers" who married titled Brits in the 19th century. De Courcy maintains that status-seeking mothers of nouveau riche families masterminded these transatlantic nuptials to break into the social circle of the wealthiest American families, an elite group known as the Knickerbockers. Arranging their daughters' marriages to impoverished British aristocrats worked; the Knickerbockers, who respected titles, welcomed the brides, along with their families, into their ranks. The stories of women like Virginia Bonynge, Maud Burke, and Cornelia Bradley Martin are ones of wealth and power, not romance. (Jennie Jerome, one of the few exceptions, married for love.) De Courcy is best at describing upper-class life on both sides of the Atlantic, but the personalities of the young women never completely shine through. Instead of digging deep, De Courcy digresses with, for example, a profile of Tennessee Claflin (later Lady Cook), the scandalous clairvoyant turned feminist stockbroker and suffragette, who didn't start out an heiress. Yet there's enough glitz and glamour to enthrall those who couldn't get enough of the recent royal nuptials. Photos.
Customer Reviews
Don’t let the title fool you- this is more historical than novel
I LOVED the way the history of the wealthiest American families is interwoven in this book. Also how New York City started to be fleshed out from farms into the grand city it has become through real estate developments from these families.
This book is not about husband hunting- it’s an eye opening account of the way the wealthiest American families entertained themselves and spent their fortunes, which happened to include having their daughters marry for titles.
It even sprinkled a bit of feminist history including the actual first woman to run for presidency.
If you love history it’s a great read.