This glorious debut novel by a latter-day Edith Wharton is a deliciously literate and compelling story of a beautiful, naive young American heiress at the turn of the twentieth century who is ill-prepared for aristocratic decadence when she marries an English duke.
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"Anyone suffering Downton Abbey withdrawal symptoms (who isn't?) will find an instant tonic in Daisy Goodwin’s The American Heiress. The story of Cora Cash, an American heiress in the 1890s who bags an English duke, this is a deliciously evocative first novel that lingers in the mind." --Allison Pearson, New York Times bestselling author of I Don’t Know How She Does It and I Think I Love YouBe careful what you wish for. Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts’, suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage. Witty, moving, and brilliantly entertaining, Cora’s story marks the debut of a glorious storyteller who brings a fresh new spirit to the world of Edith Wharton and Henry James. "For daughters of the new American billionaires of the 19th century, it was the ultimate deal: marriage to a cash-strapped British Aristocrat in return for a title and social status. But money didn’t always buy them happiness." --Daisy Goodwin in The Daily Mail One of Library Journal's Best Historical Fiction Books of 2011 <
DAISY GOODWIN, a Harkness scholar who attended Columbia University’s film school after earning a degree in history at Cambridge University, is a leading television producer in the U.K. Her poetry anthologies, including 101 Poems That Could Save Your Life, have introduced many new readers to the pleasures of poetry, and she was Chair of the judging panel of the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction. She and her husband, an ABC TV executive, have two daughters and live in London. The American Heiress is her first novel.
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Praise for the Audiobook Edition of The American Heiress
“Dripping with acerbic affectation and perfect British and Newport upper-crust accents, Katherine Kellgren deliciously portrays wealthy, beautiful, naïve Cora Cash…This story is filled with a full cast of unlikeable characters…Kellgren delivers each perfectly and convincingly conveys the worst that lack of character has to offer on both sides of the pond.” – AudioFile Magazine
“Ketherine Kellgren, a truly accomplished voice actress, affects a la-di-da intercontinental accent for the narration of this puree of Edith Wharton, ‘Downtown Abbey’ and pulp romance.” – The Washington Post
“This audiobooks is full of historical detail about the lives of the rich and famous at the turn of the last century, from fashion and food to living spaces and manners. I think I listened to the descriptions of Cora’s Parisian-made trousseau about five or six times so that I could picture each sumptuous, amazing gown clearly in my mind.” – Star-Telegram
“When I first started buying audiobooks, I always went for ‘bang for the buck’ and with 13 hours of listening time to the pleasant voice of Katherine Kellgren, you definitely get your money’s worth on this one.” – 5 Minutes for Books
“This audio presentation, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, who moves with effortless authenticity from the haughty Mayfair drawl of the Prince of Wales to the self-important, Southern tinged cadences of a rich American society matron, is bound to top the list of super-summer-beach listens.” – BookPage
“Goodwin’s attention to period detail and her inclusion of perspectives from many different characters carries the book through 14 hours of listening. Katherine Kellgren assigns distinct voices to every character" – Publishers Weekly
“I think this was a perfect audiobook for this time of year. Each time I listened, especially when driving in my car in this 98 degree heat, it would carry me away to this other world that Daisy Goodwin created.” – Bookin’ with Bingo
“The characters are varied and lively and brought to life skillfully by narrator Katherine Ke
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