Also, everything she does is based on inherited wealth. On the down side she is a big name dropper and sometimes gives very little information on the people she mentions. The good is that you get an inside look into the life of a 17 year old girl who through arranged marriage is the wife of the Duke of Marlborough and the royalty, the balls and the famous people she comes into contact with over the years. It is marketed as the autobiography of a woman who lived the life portrayed in the PBS series Downton Abbey. Mixed emotion about this reissue of book published in 1953.
Or, if you buy it, donate it to the poor and be like Consuelo, give yourself a hearty dose of self congratulation for sharing! Save your time and money for something worthwhile. I should have stopped reading at 50 pages, but after visiting New Port, RI often and touring the homes, I thought this book would be interested. There were way too many pages of who (royalty), when (always) and how (in high style) gliding their way throughout the glamours balls. Hobnobbing with little Winston Churchill and his mother, there are pages and pages about the families who snipped and sneered. Finally, when she agreed, she was whisked away to England to a life in Blenheim palace. Of course, she hated her domineering mother who locked her in her room, forbidding her to come out until she agreed to marry the title Duke of Marlborough. Others, she notes, simple through all the left over food in the container mixing it all together. Self absorbed, she pats herself on the back for dividing the food in the tins given to the poor. Oh, poor little Consuelo! When reading this book, I didn't know if I should throw it against the wall, or simply muddle through to see if there were any redeeming qualities about poor little rich girl.
Here are her encounters with every important figure of the day-from Queen Victoria, Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas, Prince Metternich and the young Winston Churchill.This intimate, richly enjoyable memoir is a wonderfully revealing portrait of a golden age. An unsnobbish, but often amused observer of the intricate hierarchy both upstairs and downstairs at Blenheim Palace, she is also a revealing witness to the glittering balls, huge weekend parties and major state occasions she attended or hosted. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home-Blenheim Palace.The ninth Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfill her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune.
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