Heiresses

This book was received from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

This was a really interesting book. Laura Thompson tells really compelling stories of doomed heiresses through the centuries. Thompson uses literary comparisons from Jane Austen to Edith Wharton to Nancy Mitford to great effect, showing the changing statuses of these girls and women through the changing times.

The first section of the book discusses girls (and some of them were just girls) and women who weren't protected by their moneyed and titled lives. The stories of Mary Davis Grosvenor (yes, that Grosvenor), Catherine Tylney Long, and Ellen Turner are used to show these changes in the roles and outcomes of heiresses in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. They were used as pawns to exchange wealth and lands and secure alliances. Some were literally kidnapped and married against their will, just (“just”) for their inheritances. Others thought themselves in love with men who would ultimately steal their fortunes, having them sign them away or just spending it all themselves - women didn't have their own property once married and so these men could spend it all with impunity. Marriage laws were changed but women were still often at a disadvantage with the men in their lives.

Thompson next moves on to the million dollar princesses, those rich American girls whose wealth was used to buy themselves a title and help resuscitate dying aristocratic families and stately homes. New moneyed girls wouldn't be accepted into high society back home, but many Englishmen were willing to overlook common origins when they came with a high enough dollar value. Called “buccaneers,” an early example of this was Jennie Jerome, but one of the most famous is Consuelo Vanderbilt. Again, many of these weren't happy marriages, built as they were upon a business transaction. Consuelo's in particular became known for how unhappy the participants truly were. Again, marriage and divorce laws were changed and women had a bit more agency over their lives.

Around the same time, and running parallel in some cases, were the heiresses who took hold of their money and did what they wanted with it. Many of these women were lesbians, left to run free by virtue of their money. They ran salons in Paris and Venice. They became involved in politics and philanthropy. They raced horses, loved fashion, did drugs. This is probably the happiest section of Thompson's book. These women took hold of their money and lives and made them their own. While these women had fun and didn't see themselves tragically, Thompson rewrites the story of Daisy Fellowes to show how it could be bent into the “poor little rich girl” narrative.

In the last main section, Thompson returns to the “unprotected” women, the women who were burdened by and careless with their money, but also the women who wanted to throw off their millions and do better things. The example of Alice de Janze shows how money doesn't buy happiness; she lost her children and attempted - and ultimately succeeded in - committing suicide. Nancy Cunard rebelled against her heiress mother and supported anti-racist and African causes, while wasting away on drugs and drink. Some gave away their properties to the National Trust, Rose Dugdale joined the IRA. Thompson also mentions Patty Hearst and Barbara Mackle, as of old, kidnapped heiresses held for ransom.

In the epilogue Thompson shows a different type of heiress, Angela Burdett-Coutts, who was friends with Charles Dickens and used her money for unglamorous social causes. She improved schools for poor children, started housing for prostitutes, gave to the RSPCA, sent money to Ireland after the potato famine. Ultimately she too was of a similar type though, marrying a much younger man, though was lucky in that he furthered her causes rather than squandering her money.

This was a fascinating book full of interesting women with both happy and sad stories. Most of them are cautionary tales of a sort - money can buy happiness but only to an extent. You can see why Thompson chose these stories - they're wild! Some of these women even inspired fictional stories either directly or indirectly (Barry Lyndon and The Buccaneers are notable examples). Thompson makes even despicable, or at least unsympathetic, people bearable - you feel for these “poor little rich girls” no matter their circumstances. This was yet another excellent book by Laura Thompson.