In her autobiography, Consuelo Balsan,
the former Duchess of Marlborough, describes with humor and insight the
Gilded Age of her youth for the benefit of future generations. The pages
of this memoir are replete with anecdotes involving monarchs,
aristocrats, politicians, artists, and writers of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, including Edward VII, Queen Alexandra, Tsar
Nicholas II, Queen Marie of Romania, Winston Churchill, H.G. Wells, and
J.M. Barrie, to name only a few.
An heiress of the Vanderbilt fortune,
Consuelo was married as an unwilling teenager to the Duke of
Marlborough, who needed her money for the upkeep of his ancestral estate
at Blenheim Palace. Although Consuelo dutifully fulfilled her role as
wife and mother as well as bountiful lady of the manor, her marriage to
the Duke was one long misery, later to be annulled. Consuelo eventually
married to her true love, dashing French aviator Jacques Balsan, with
whom she shared many happy years. Throughout the course of her life,
Consuelo endowed and managed many charities, especially those which
aided women and children in need. One of the highlights of the book is
her escape from the Nazis during World War II. In spite of the lavish
descriptions of balls, banquets, mansions, villas, gowns and jewels,
Consuelo shines as a person of integrity and humility, one who was able
to discern the difference between the glitter of riches from the gold of
genuine happiness.
(*NOTE: This book was sent to me by the Historical Novel Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)
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