Bren's The Barbizon is an informative and often entertaining read about New York's famous hotel for women. Focusing on the building's relationship with Mademoiselle magazine and its editors, and the Katherine Gibbs school and its secretarial students, Bren takes readers through the building's entire history, telling stories about its famous and not-so-famous residents. My mother was a Katie Gibbs graduate, and while she didn't live at the Barbizon--she commuted--I loved reading about New York and the ways in which women navigated it in the period when she had been there. Bren makes it clear from the start that the Barbizon was a place for upper- and some middle-class women, and that, until quite late in the 20th century, all white. By connecting the hotel with its famous residents, such as the guest editors of Mademoiselle, including Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion, Bren deftly crafts the story of the magazine as well. This book should find loads of readers and is terrific for a book club or group of any kind.

The most famous all-women hotel in NYC. Where women came to start living their dreams and to escape the confinements of home. A well researched walk through the decades, where we meet small town women and some that became the who's who in film, modeling, and the literary world.

I was so excited that NetGalley gave me early access to this book. I was already hooked at the introduction. I've been mesmerized by the Barbizon since reading The Bell Jar and then Dollhouse. So, I was thrilled to read more factual details about the hotel.
I breezed through the first quarter of the book and then it fell a little flat for me. There was too much dedication to Mademoiselle, the Guest Editor program, and Sylvia Plath. I also feel like the timeline was a little erratic and repetitive. While it was still very interesting, I did have to skim over some parts.

Overall, it was great to read more history about the Barbizon and the women who stayed there.

Paulina Bren has written an unprecedented book about the fascinating women who have stayed in the Barbizon Hotel over the years. From Grace Kelly to Sylvia Plath, she gives brief but detailed and poignant accounts of their stays. But beyond that, she also includes how their experiences at the Barbizon shaped them and made a meaningful impact in each of their lives. I, admittedly, requested this book solely for the Sylvia Plath coverage, but I wound up getting sucked into the book as a whole even beyond the Plath bits. Interestingly written, Bren puts forth a unique history that's definitely worth reading. I don't think I learned anything about Plath's experience at the Barbizon that I didn't already know, but the analysis and examination of Plath's experience in her own life as well as the lives of her fellow Mademoiselle guest editors stand out and separate this book from a typical Plath biography. With The Barbizon's specific focus on the hotel itself, the depth of Plath's time there can really be explored.

I recommend this book for people interested in history, particularly 21st century women's history. And for Plath lovers, it's definitely worth a read!

With thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an early copy in return for an honest review.

When it comes to reading I particularly enjoy a book with a strong sense of setting, where the setting is almost an additional character in the story. So The Barbizon fits that perfectly! The book was incredibly well-researched and I felt like I learned about The Barbizon as if she (I imagine The Barbizon as a her) was a person right along with Grace Kelly, Sylvia Path, and Molly Brown.

For those interested in history, this book covers not only the history of this historic building but also looks at the history of women in NYC, as it provides context to this famed building.

The Barbizon by Paulina Bren
Pub date 3/2/2021

Thank you to Simon & Schuster & NetGalley for the ARC.

“The Barbizon…had been a place where women felt safe, where they had a room of their own to plot and plan the rest of their lives. The hotel set them free. It freed up their ambition, tapping into desires deemed off limits elsewhere…”

This is a non-fiction book about New York City’s Barbizon Hotel, one of a few women-only hotels that popped up in NYC after World War 1. The Barbizon promised a safe existence for women coming into NYC wanting to work in one of the many high rises going up around the city, or to become an actress or singer, or to work in fashion because after WW1, there were opportunities for women that didn’t necessarily involve marriage and children. Of course, the majority of women who spent time at the Barbizon no doubt went on to become wives and mothers, Paulina Bren focuses a lot of her energy on the women who didn’t really want that, even if, ultimately, that was where they ended up.

I liked this book, and although it wasn’t a page-turner in the traditional sense, I did find myself looking forward to sitting down and reading at the end of the day. I really enjoyed the stories of Joan Didion and Sylvia Plath as well as the hints at Grace Kelly’s lust for life and Molly Brown’s attempt at musical prowess.

Despite the famous people mentioned, the book focuses largely on the women who ran Mademoiselle magazine which was connected with the Barbizon as well as other women (and men) who were more behind the scenes and probably are not known to most people.

There were times where to book dragged a bit, and sometimes there was some unnecessary repetition between chapters, but I am surprised by how much information Bren did get from a topic which she admitted did not have a lot written about it over the years.

Eventually, the Barbizon went the way of so many other buildings in NYC and went condo, but for 80 years, the building and the women who graced its halls became a part of the burgeoning feminist movement, even though most of them would absolutely deny that!

3.5/5 stars

The lore of the famous Barbizon has always fascinated me. A place for single women to live and work independently in an age where it was rare to do so. Most women married a and started families, Barbizon was there for the rebels, the rare ones who wanted to experience life.

I wanted to love this book, and I liked a lot of it.

From 1927 when it was built, the Barbizon housed women who wanted to be free from the usual demands made of women. Women flocked to New York to seek careers, many in show business, but also many in other careers.

The list of people who stayed there and their stories are many and varied, and not everyone was famous. Not everyone succeeded, either, but the Barbizon was there for them. It was safe, clean and welcoming. The story about Margaret Brown was particularly interesting. She was quite a character!

All that said, it was written rather dryly, but basically in chronological order. Interesting for those who like the history of old buildings and the stories of the thousands who passed through this iconic place.

I am fascinated with all things New York and the book The Barbizon, A Hotel That Set Women Free sounded like a fun frolick with girls of the 50's and 60's finding their independence and true selves. Not so much. I was aware that this book was nonfiction but anticipated more fascinating stories of the inhabitants rather than the long boring chapters of history. This is perhaps my naiveté as the author is a very accomplished historian and professor at Vassar. And believe me this book reads like a textbook.

I did enjoy the last chapter a bit more than the rest as it covered more of the 1960's and guests at the hotel such as Jaclyn Smith and Tippi Hedren. Helen Gurley Brown is also referenced as an example of the "Sex and the Single Girl" type of female that the Barbizon attracted. Actual interviews with any of the inhabitants would have been much more interesting than bits of their own bios that reference the Barbizon. The book includes photos which I did enjoy.

I grew up in the Midwest in the 40s-50s so I was very familiar with the Barbizon’s reputation as a perfect place for young women coming to NYC for a few days or a long time to stay. Therefore, it made it especially fun and interesting to read about it during the height of its success. I was not aware of the role Mademoiselle magazine played vis a vis the Barbizon so it was interesting to read about the college girls who earned guest editorship positions being housed at the Barbizon, .and it was sad to read about the ‘women’ who stayed there for years and years. The book gives us a bit of American social history from the early to late 20th Century.

Maybe it was because I love The Bell Jar, but I wanted to move to New York City and live at The Barbizon. I did move to New York, but not to The Barbizon....but this book makes me feel like I did.

Extensively and wonderfully researched history of the historic building. I had read and loved The Dollhouse from Fiona Davis but this helped provide more of a historical background.

There's still some mystery in what made The Barbizon so great - and I hope this books helps others find it.

Thanks to netGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

"The Barbizon, through much of the twentieth century, had been a place where women felt safe, where they had a room of their own to plot and plan the rest of their lives. The hotel set them free. It freed up their ambition, tapping into their desires deemed off limits elsewhere, but imaginable, realizable, doable, in the City of Dreams."

New York City is brimming over with history and the story of the Barbizon intrigued me. The first few chapters were a fascinating view of its beginnings. The historical context was well articulated and I was engaged. When the Mademoiselle magazine GE program became the focus, I started skimming. There were so many names and so many details that really had nothing to do with the Barbizon itself. The magazine was using the hotel as a dormitory, but other entities were doing the same and did not get the same intensive focus. For me it was a bit off balance and I would have loved to see more photos like the one of Rita Hayworth at the beginning of Chapter One. Well researched, but could use some additional editing in my opinion.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

In this well- written and researched story, readers will learn of the life that existed in New York City for women after World War I. It was a destination for all the starry-eyed, independent young women who wanted to model, paint, write, or act. They came in droves, Sylvia Plath, and Joan Didion, Grace Kelly and Jaclyn Smith, Liza Minelli and the Unsinkable Molly Brown to name just a few. Every one of them had high hopes and sincere wishes to be a success.
The success of many of these women corresponds to the development of the hotel. It wasn’t just a hotel but a safe place to be independent and live out their dreams. This is a treat for the mind of anyone wondering what life was like for women in the early and mid-Twentieth Century. Readers will not be able to put this one down.

Before reading this book I knew one thing about the word "Barbizon". To me growing up in the 1970s and being like most other teen-aged girls I read quite a few fashion magazines and had very unrealistic dreams of going to New York city and becoming a model or at the very least a fashion designer. And one thing I remember in those magazines were advertisements for Barbizon Modeling School. I did not know a thing about a hotel only for women, or about what that hotel really meant to the dozen's of women who lived and stayed there.
I did enjoy reading about this famous hotel. Finding out about the opportunities the women who stayed there were able to take advantage of, especially in the beginning when women were to be homemakers and not part of the work force. Reading about these women and how they courageously went against convention to fulfill their dreams I can not imagine how hard it was for them. Reading about the hotel and how it gave single women a safe haven to pursue their careers and dreams was very enlightening. There were so many women who came from all over to stay at the Barbizon, the likes of such included Grace Kelly, Sylvia Plath, and Liza Minnelli, a veritable who's who of famous women.
This book is filled with the history of the hotel, how it began, how it was built, and how it developed and adapted over the years, changing with the times. It tells of the women who stayed there and their hopes, dreams, achievements and disappointments. This is a good fact-filled history of the hotel and a testament to the ever-changing role of women in the work place and also that even the most unreachable dream can be reached, with drive, focus and ambition, women can do anything!
I would recommend for anyone interested in the history of New York City and the history of women's liberalization throughout the years. This is a very informative read about a piece of women's history I was not aware of.
Thank you to the publishers at Simon & Schuster publishing and NetGalley for the free advanced reader copy of the book, in return I am leaving my honest review.

This book started out slow for me but once I got into a few chapters I found it very fascinating. The history of an all women hotel intrigued me so much that I wanted to learn who stayed there and how they found this place. I found it interesting that in the era of the roaring 20’s someone had the insight to build a safe hotel for women.
I enjoyed reading about the unsinkable Molly Brown and her thoughts on the flappers was hilarious. And to learn that Katherine Gibb’s secretarial school drew women there. Also, that guest editors of the Mademoiselle magazine would stay there. Paula Bren writes to where you felt like you was in the place. I loved how the men would wait outside the building to get glimpses of the women. Very informative book about the famous Barbizon Hotel.

I received an ARC for free from Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you Netgalley for a wonderful read.

The Barbizon by Paulina Bren is awesome! I looked up the author simply because the book is terrific and no surprise she has a PhD in history. The book is about The Barbizon - a residential hotel for single women to live independently in NYC beginning in the 1920s - an alternative to boarding houses for professional women joining the job market as typists, etc. The book is really a wonderful history of women's growing independence following WWI and into the 1990s. The book included a lot of information about famous women who lived at the Barbizon (Sylvia Plath) but lots of information about the 'average' woman living there over time. Incredibly well written and hoping to see more from this author in the future on women's history!

I loved New York City and it’s innovative architecture from the 1920s-1930s. The Barbizon is a fascinating look at one building which had a specific purpose-a safe place for,women to stay. A cascade of women called the Barbizon home over 7 decades, from the obscure to,the well known. I liked how Bren discussed each decade and how the building reflected the cultural and social changes occurring outside its walls. She devoted two chapters Sylvia Plath’s stay, which I thought detracted from the main focus of the book. I was appalled at the renovations described in the 80s and was not surprised it’s been converted to expensive condos. The one aspect I wish the author had included more about are the “Women”, a hold out group, protected by NYC laws, who refuse to move. I think their stories would be an excellent addition to the history of the Barbizon. The cover nails the subject perfectly.

There was a time when young women moving to New York City spent their first weeks (or longer) at the Barbizon Hotel. The guests were both famous and not. All were looking for a place that a female could safely and uncontroversially stay. Everyone from Grace Kelly to Sylvia Plath spent time there, beginning after WWI. The building is still there but, of course, is no longer the same.

It was a place of rules. For example, no men were allowed upstairs. But, even so, it offered a welcome sense of freedom to its residents.

Those who are interested in the social history, the roles of women and the city of New York will find that this title is interesting and informative. It is also somewhat nostalgic and, for that reason, may give readers a pleasant escape.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

An interesting read about the history of this hotel
And those who lived there. At a time in history when things were really changing this was
Safe place for women to come together and grow. Things babe certainly changed in many ways over the years yet in some ways are still the same.
I hadn’t heard of this hotel before so I was thankful for its history.

This nonfiction book outlines the history of the Barbizon hotel for women. The history of the hotel is also closely related to the Mademoiselle magazine, so the histories are both explored.
Because there are many well-guarded secrets of the Barbizon, this book became more of a study of it's inhabitants and the era they lived in. I really enjoyed the individual looks into particular women, as well as a sub-focus on the women who visited but never "made it" in an industry that would have them widely known today.

This book definitely brings up a sense of nostalgia for some of the kind parts of the yesteryear while also blatantly talking about the negative thoughts of the time. The book was frank about the expectations of the women who stayed at the hotel (beautiful, young, and white being the main requirements) as well as the societal expectations. There were these brief dips into different eras; prohibition, WWII, post-war, etc that were all a delight to read. I really have only two issues with this book. 1) I think that this book covered more of the history of Mademoiselle, rather than the hotel. Which wouldn't have been a problem if both entities had received equal billing. 2) I found the constant focus on Sylvia Plath to be a little unsettling.
Overall, this book has a great structure and strong writing.

After World War I, women flocked to New York City to follow their dreams and sought safe, female-only places to live. While residential hotels for men existed, no such thing was available for women at the time. The Barbizon Hotel for Women was built to fill this void, housing such well-knowns as Grace Kelly, Liza Minnelli, Ali McGraw, Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, Phylicia Rashad and many more, and was so successful that it remains the most famous of the women-only residences erected in the first half of the 20th century. In The Barbizon, Paulina Bren captures not only the history of the legendary hotel but also important moments in women’s history from that time period. I absolutely loved this one.