Heiresses

June 1, 2022

Biographer Thompson (The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters) sketches the lives of British and American women who were shaped by inherited money. She sets the scene with an overview of heiresses in literature, particularly in Jane Austen's novels, then jumps back to the tragic story of one of England's earliest heiresses, Mary Davies, whose inheritance made her a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. This is typical of the lives of 18th-and early 19th-century heiresses: their value is in their ability to raise their husband's status. The Gilded Age stories become more familiar yet equally tragic. There are some rays of light, such as Winnaretta Singer, heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune, who built a life as a patron of the arts (and an out lesbian) in early 20th-century Paris. The lives of 20th-century heiresses (Emerald Cunard, Barbara Hutton, Patty Hearst, et al.) are chronicled in the last half. Thompson narrates the audiobook in a crisp British accent that's a good fit for the content; her tone and pace vary to heighten tension or share a good bit of gossip. VERDICT Suggested to those who enjoyed Anderson Cooper's Vanderbilt or Bill Dedman's Empty Mansions.--Nanette Donohue

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December 20, 2021
Biographer Thompson (Six Girls) unearths secrets and scandals in this entertaining group portrait of women, mainly British and American and from the 19th and 20th centuries, who inherited vast wealth. Claiming that “it really is different for girls,” Thompson notes that until the late 19th century in England, a wife’s identity was “legally subsumed into that of her husband,” and he was entitled to her property and income. Later, when a woman’s money was “legally and incontestably” her own, many heiresses were still intensely vulnerable and led “godawful lives,” while others saw their wealth “as a responsibility worth having.” Thompson recounts the stories of Mary Davies, who lost control of her London estate after her husband’s death in 1700; Winnaretta Singer, daughter of sewing machine manufacturer Isaac Singer, who “inhabit the iconoclastic milieu of the avant garde” in late 19th-century Paris; and baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, who partnered with Charles Dickens to rehabilitate impoverished schools and neighborhoods in Victorian England. Other profile subjects include kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, and Winnaretta Singer’s niece Daisy Fellowes, who “lived as a pure and unrepentant hedonist.” Skillfully evoking disparate social milieus and generational divides, Thompson packs the narrative full of juicy gossip without resorting to caricature. Readers will be enthralled. Agent: Georgina Capel, Georgina Capel Assoc.