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Download Glitter and the Gold ePub

by Consuelo Balsan

ISBN 0704100681
ISBN13 978-0704100688
Language English
Author Consuelo Balsan
Publisher George Mann Books; 1st Thus Edition edition (1973)
Pages 270
Formats doc lrf lit docx
Category Biography
Subcategory Specific Groups
Size ePub 1961 kb
Size Fb2 1102 kb
Rating: 4.8
Votes: 620

This is the fascinating story of the American heiress, Consuelo Vanderbilt, who married the ninth Duke of Marlborough for anything but love in 1895. A very human story told with candor and objectivity. It will keep your interest from the first page to the last. Everybody who was anybody can be seen in these pages. From artists and writers to statesmen of the world - view her world from the splendors of the courts of St. Petersburg and Vienna to the cold and desolate winter in France of 1940's. Here is a very candid and revealing personal story coupled with a unique insider's view of aristocracy's golden age.

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan was an enormous influence in my life. My earliest recollections were of Casa Alva in Lantana Florida where I spent almost every winter holiday during my school life.

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan was an enormous influence in my life. It was the house Granny and Jacques Balsan bought after the war. Consuelo (or ‘Granny’ as we knew her) was born in 1877, the eldest daughter of a very socially ambitious mother and a fabulously wealthy father who was kind and indulgent. Her early life would have been unbearable to later generations. It was extraordinarily strict.

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan was the American born wife of the 9th Duke of. .Consuelo Vanderbilt had an amazing life This book by a Duchess heretofore unknown to me, is fraught with great historical moments, a good explanation of the customs an.

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan was the American born wife of the 9th Duke of Marlborough. She was a member of the immensely rich Vanderbilt family and her cruel and ambitious mother arranged her marriage to an English duke who needed money to repair his house and pay his bills. Consuelo Vanderbilt had an amazing life. The Glitter and the Gold gives a look into the days of one of the most famous women of American and English turn of the century aristocracy. This book by a Duchess heretofore unknown to me, is fraught with great historical moments, a good explanation of the customs and protocol of English nobility, and a reminder that things are not as they appear.

Balsan, Consuelo Vanderbilt. Books for People with Print Disabilities. Internet Archive Books. Uploaded by sf-loadersive. org on December 3, 2009.

Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. In 1921 she remarried aviator Jacques Balsan moving with him to a chateau in the South of France. This intimate, richly enjoyable memoir is a wonderfully revealing portrait of a golden age. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfil her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. 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.

Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful, and heir to a vast fortune. She was also in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to marry an English Duke. She sailed to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home-Blenheim Palace. She was the real American heiress who lived long before Downton Abbey's Lady Grantham arrived.

The Glitter and the Gold. Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan. Only one American woman could have written this book. In these recollections Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan tells her story, candidly and objectively. Living through the end of the Victorian Age until December 6, 1964, Consuelo Balsan looks back on an era of extraordinary historical interest, on friendships with celebrated persons and on a lost world of distinction and privilege in which she played a leading part. She recreates, in authentic, amused and amusing detail, a world which has long since come to an end, but which still has the power to fascinate those who never knew it.

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan had one of the most amazing, extraordinary lives of anyone in American history. Raised into mind-boggling wealth on Fifth Avenue, Consuelo had the misfortune of having Alva as her power-mad mother. Alva, in fact, locked away her strikingly tall, dark daughter and kept her prisoner until she agreed to marry the arrogant, weak and some say violent, Duke of Marlborough

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan was born in 1877 and was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family. She became the Duchess of Marlborough on her marriage to the ninth Duke of Marlborough in 1895. Country of Publication.

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan was born in 1877 and was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family. Biographies & Autobiographies.

Churchill family, Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, Consuelo Vanderbilt Marlborough Duchess o. Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful, and heir to a vast fortune.

Churchill family, Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, Consuelo Vanderbilt Marlborough Duchess of. Places.

Аудиокнига "The Glitter and the Gold: The American Duchess--In Her Own Words", Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan. Мгновенный доступ к вашим любимым книгам без обязательной ежемесячной платы. Слушайте книги через Интернет и в офлайн-режиме на устройствах Android, iOS, Chromecast, а также с помощью Google Ассистента. Скачайте Google Play Аудиокниги сегодня!

Talk about Glitter and the Gold

Low_Skill_But_Happy_Deagle

Consuelo Balsan's autobiography will be of interest to anyone who enjoys Downton Abbey. The book is not as entertaining as the television show, but there are some good parts. It begins with Consuelo's birth and takes the reader through her childhood where she lived in luxurious surroundings but at the mercy of a mercurial mother who insisted that "children be seen and not heard." Alva, the mother, insisted on Consuelo's marriage to the impoverished Duke of Marlborough and thwarted Consuelo's desire to marry someone else. Once married, Consuelo takes the reader across to England and describes life as a duchess in an old, stately mansion. After she produces the heir and the spare to the ducal dynasty, Consuelo parts from her husband and lives in London where she gets involved in the suffragette movement, finds love again with Jacques Balsan and eventually moves to France where they live happily as husband and wife. She describes their idyllic life, both in southern France and in the magnificent chateau she bought with her Vanderbilt millions where the couple lived until the outbreak of World War II which forced their evacuation from occupied France.

It is at the end where the book leaves much to be desired. The reader is left hanging as Consuelo sets off for America, her homeland, and somewhere she has not lived for nearly 45 years. It would have been nice to know how she reacquainted herself with the States and how she re-adapted to her native country. Consuelo name drops throughout her book but there doesn't seem to be much substance to the stories she offers about the famous people in her life. No one, not even her two husbands, is more than a two-dimensional character. Perhaps it was her tendency to hold back on describing people fully because it isn't the thing to do, at least among the elite.

Consuelo was taught to give back to society and she performs admirably by opening her houses to politicians, suffragettes, social workers and fundraisers and she even operates a sanatorium in France. But her writing is stilted, relying heavily on flowery phrases that show, at least to this reader, that she could be a bit stuffy. Her book could have used a little more gossip and information about the players around her, because that is what the readers want, but if you like Downton, you will enjoy this book.

Shliffiana

This autobiography of the granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt chronicles the life of a daughter of fortune born in 1877 to William K. Vanderbilt of the New York Central Railroad empire.

Consuelo describes her father as having a happy nature and disliking strife. Speaking of her mother, she tells of a woman with towering ambition, one who is combative and domineering. She once told Consuelo, "I don't ask you to think, I do the thinking, you do as you are told."

One of the things Consuelo's mother told her was who she would marry. The Duke of Marlborough, whose family estate was Blenheim Palace, became the groom of this arranged marriage. With him Consuelo produced two sons, and after eleven years of strained relations she sought a legal separation. For several more years, Consuelo remained in England, and then following her divorce, remarried and moved to her second husband's native country, France. There, Consuelo and her husband, Jacques Balsan, enjoyed many happy years in Paris, on the Riviera, and in Saint Georges Motel. When France fell to Hitler in 1940, Consuelo and Jacques escaped to the United States where she regained her citizenship.

This self-portrait of a privileged life reveals a woman deeply concerned about those less fortunate. Throughout her years in Britain and France, Consuelo championed many causes to benefit the poor, the working women, and children of the underprivileged.

In 1913 she helped organize a conference to draw attention to the plight of poorly paid female workers. When World War I broke out, she helped the Women's Emergency Corps, a group of women who took over jobs of men sent off to fight. In 1916 she spoke on infant mortality, metioning the prevalence of venereal disease and its disastrous effects. As Honorary Treasurer of the Medical School for Women, she secured donations to establish and equip an extension of the Physics Department at the Royal Free Hospital.

In France, her philanthropic efforts continued. She helped secure funding for a hospital for the middle class. After moving to Saint Georges-Motel, she established a children's sanatorium where children could recover from tuberculosis.

Along with her philanthropic efforts, Consuelo maintained an active social life. While married to the Duke of Marlborough she hosted a shooting party which included the Prince of Wales on the guest list. Over a hundred guests were accommodated in the house.

In France her social circle included ambassadors, archbishops, counts and countesses, renowned writers, artists, and prime ministers.

The book contains many black and white photos of family members, homes in Britain and France, and artistic portraits of Consuelo and her family when she was a duchess.

While the text is engaging and the eras and opulence described in terms that will never fail to impress, Consuelo's frequent inclusion of French phrases sans translation leave those illiterate in French in the dark as to the meaning.

The autobiography ends with Consuelo's return to the United States at the start of World War II, but no information on how she spent the years between 1940 and 1952, the date of publication of her autobiography. She lived until 1964, dying when she was 87 years old. Evidently, she wrote no other books but this one.

Further information on Consuelo and her mother can be found in Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and Mother in the Gilded Age, by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart, Harper Perennial, 2005
The Glitter and the Gold: The American Duchess---in Her Own Words

Vizil

Mrs. Balsan's memoir of the end of the Victorian era and of Edwardian elegance is a portrait of an interesting, resiliant and ultimately kind lady. The illustrations in the Kindle edition, unfortunately, look like postage stamps. I would advise anyone to skip the Kindle edition and go for the hardback so that you can see the Duchess and the people she writes about.

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