The Husband Hunters cover art

The Husband Hunters

Social Climbing in London and New York

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The Husband Hunters

By: Anne de Courcy
Narrated by: Clare Corbett
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About this listen

Towards the end of the 19th century and for the first few years of the 20th, 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, 50 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 firsthand 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.

©2017 Anne de Courcy (P)2017 Orion Publishing Group 19th Century Historical Modern Women Gilded Age England

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All stars
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An amazing book very informative but entertaining at the same time. Very well read. Highly recommend

Brilliant, very engaging

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Despite a wonderful narrator too disjointed and in need of good editing to deserve more than three stars

Too disjointed

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I have recently read a good deal of the social history of the American and English upper classes of this period (inc’ Anderson Coopers ‘The Vanderbilts’ and the unexpurgated diaries of Henry ‘Chips’ Channon) and there are some new and insightful observations in this book. Most interestingly the distinctions between the lives of very wealthy women in America vs those of titles women in the UK, at that time. It transpires that New York society, even that which considers itself ‘old money’ etc, in its attempts to ape European nobility, created a more rigid and hidebound structure that to an Englishman belies a very ‘middle class’ approach.
European nobility meanwhile seems to have been ruthless in its attempts to acquire American fortunes and use them to prop up a way of life and a class which might have seemed to anyone else to have been in its death throes.
It’s a book about people none of whom are especially inter sting or edifying. American women with to much money and not enough to do, vs European men with not enough money and too many obligations.
There were some very starve pronunciation choices (I’m pretty sure Mamie Fish pronounced her forename to rhyme with Amy, rather than Mammy for example! And some strange pauses and punctuation. But the reader has a clear and good speaking voice.
The book hovers between biography and social history a little precariously and this makes it sometimes seem a bit erratic, but it brings clear evidence to support some of its oblique assertions.

Erratic but useful & intereting social history

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This is a retelling of many personal journeys to marriage and back of American heiresses marrying into the British aristocracy. Plenty of insight into how this affected both families and society, even political decisions on both sides of the Atlantic. I loved the contrast of ‘old money’ and ‘new money’ within American society. My only complaint is that through thread narrative seems to stop and start. Very enjoyable book for pleasure or historical study.

Interesting and revealing history

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What a stunning insight to life in the USA in that period in time…the excess is beyond comprehension…the stories would be laughed at but as they are true just astounding and leaves so many questions…where did all this marble and tapestry go to when the fifth Ave houses were demolished for sky scrapers .. the staff now there must be some stories there,,life below stairs surrounded by so much wealth…and thank goodness some of the “ cottages “ in Newport remain . The book is beautifully read…a delight but I’m still just astonished…

Lost for words..I loved it

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Loved it, very informative on the American social scene of the late 1800's, (unknown to me as an English woman.)

Husband Hunters

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I was disappointed to find that there are no central characters upon whom the narrative here hinges. Although there is lots of information it's all so fragmentary and reads like a laundry list. But if you enjoy learning about the excesses of the so called 'upper classes' around the turn of the 1900s, you will certainly have your eyes opened. A few good eggs among them but basically a tale of shallow and empty lives played out in a game of keeping up with the Jones' and who is 'in and who is 'out'. The strange mispronunciations by the narrator of commonplace words and names 'grates' and the jury is still out on her voice characterisations.

Busy character list

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Easy to listen to, packed full of detail. I thought it was great. Strongly recommend.

Excellent book

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This gave me nothing to hold on to. I feel like I had to take notes to follow the story

Nope

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