My Account
The Husband Hunters
by Anne De Courcy
Anne De Courcy is well regarded as a writer of social history, and this one is subtitled “Social Climbing in London and New York.” Starting in 1874, when Jennie Jerome – the first to be labelled a ‘Dollar Princess’ – married Randolph Churchill to 1914, more than 100 young American heiresses married in to the British aristocracy. They all bought huge wealth, glamour and sophistication to the ailing and crumbling British ruling class. Many of these young women had been extensively educated, often in France, and they had a freedom of manner and confidence in themselves that the English girls lacked. Based on extensive research, drawing on diaries, memoirs and letters, Anne De Courcy shows us the motives and attitudes of these young girls and their families, set in the social context of the times and revealing that husband hunting in England was much more than simply a case of cash for titles.
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