As Laura Thompson takes a look at history through the eyes of an heiress, she invites the reader into a secret world, a privileged society. However, as we soon find out, being an heiress isn’t just sitting on the fancy couch eating million dollar bonbons all day. Throughout history, heiresses were viewed as property, victims of abuse and manipulation, and left with little autonomy or decision-making power. Life as an heiress centuries ago was certainly not what it appears to be now.

The book has potential. Thompson knows her subject well and the topic is interesting. However, I felt like I was reading a draft, as opposed to a final product. The writing wavers inconsistently between academic and casual. The tone isn’t consistent. In addition, Thompson often goes off on tangents that are note-worthy, but poorly placed. I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t like the book, as that’s not the case. I just feel like it needs some editing.

I can’t quite say I recommend the book in its current form, but would love to read more of Thompson’s work in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in return for my honest review.

This had a lot of great detail and information and was a very interesting read. I had not heard of most of the women in the book so it was nice to learn more about their importance in history. That said, Thompson has a tendency to veer all over the place which can make it a touch hard to follow for the average reader.

A fantastic look at heiresses through history. I enjoyed how each chapter focused on an individual story and dived into it with a narrative flair. Some of these women I have read about in other books but this treatment was just more fun to read. So often the stories end tragically and it is almost enough to make you feel bad for a girl born with so much money. This would make a good research book for a writer wanting to write a true portray of an heiress through the ages.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies by Laura Thompson is a newly-released book that, just as the title tells us, looks at the lives of heiresses. The women are either British or Americans who, for the most part, married into the English aristocracy. The book starts in the late 1600's with Mary Davies and goes through modern times, with Patty Hearst. The theme is that untold wealth is almost guaranteed to make a woman miserable (although rare heiresses are able to escape the burden of wealth, mainly through philanthropy.) It seems the misery stems from two main problems. First, when being defined by wealth, it is impossible for the women to ever feel loved for themselves. And second, boredom. What is there to do besides spend mindlessly when you have more money than you know what to do with?

They marry tragically, over and over again. They have affairs. They drink and take drugs. If they become mothers, they are terrible ones.

A surprising number of them are kidnaped and forced into marriages. (I thought this was just an overused trope of Regency Romances. I had no idea it was so common!)

The book looks into the societal, legal, and political disadvantages that these women faced, particularly in earlier centuries. Once married, women had no legal identity. Their money was turned over to their husbands. Their children belonged to the husband. Even their own bodies belonged to their husbands. It’s horrifying. But even in the modern era, there are double standards and issues of consent that make it difficult for women born to gobs and gobs of money. (Also, nobody actually feels sorry for them!)

Heiresses is well written and well researched. The individual stories are interesting. But on the whole, the book didn’t engage me as much as I expected. The litany of miserable heiresses became draining and their stories started to run together, and then I felt guilty for starting to see them all generically. It did demonstrate that a good deal of progress has been made for women, but not yet enough.

I received a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review
I found this quite interesting, but it did cover women who are well known which felt a little over done at this point.

“Without men, but with money. That was the formula for a new design for living.” 👏🏻👏🏻

“How is she to know her own intrinsic worth, when everybody around her is so distracted by externals? How—especially in matters of love—can she ever be sure that she is wanted for herself?”

I am conflicted. I love the guilded age and British aristocracy. I am just fascinated by that stupid level of wealth, so this book seemed right up my alley. The reality of it, though, is that this book reads more like a research paper. Although I enjoyed all of the name dropping and research that I am sure was put into this book, I found myself a bit bored. The book didn’t flow smoothly.

What I did get out of it, though, was that heiresses were abducted. Abused. Had their children stolen off of their breast. Rape in a marriage wasn’t yet illegal, so they were sexually assaulted in their own homes. To be a woman with wealth in a world run by men who were resentful of that wealth, but at the same time wanted that same wealth desperately, made for a horrible life for these women. I simply cannot imagine living in a time where these things were condoned. Ugh.

I was also gifted the audio version and, narrated by the author, it was done well despite the book being written more like a term paper. Her accent is beautiful and was pleasant to listen to.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and the author for the ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Though you'd think money smoothes away all obstacles, it seems in the lives of these heiresses to be the thing that stands between them and happiness. Using the examples of individual heiresses to make her case, Thompson shows how the lives of heiresses evolved with the times, and what they may need to achieve happiness in their different ways.

The book is broken down into four sections which deal with different eras of heiresses, from the heiress abductions of the Georgian times to the American invasion in Regency and Victorian, the freedom and hedonism of the World Wars, and finally the politically-minded 'anti-heiresses' of the mid-century period. Except from Patty Hearst and Barbara Hutton, both discussed in this last section, the women covered by Thompson were mostly unfamiliar to me, so it was very interesting to learn about these figures who were pivotal in their own times but quite obscure today.

Though we learn about insane excesses, unhappy marriages, and scandals galore, the tone of the writing was quite academic - no recklessly unsubstantiated rumors here! I know this disappointed some readers who were expecting more salacious stories, but I thought the lives of the heiresses were wild enough without. I also really enjoyed the razor-sharp style of writing, which in turn lauded and lambasted the various players in the dramas and held an arch but sympathetic view of most heiresses.

Overall, this was a fascinating read, and I think I will check out this author's other work on the Mitford sisters sometime.

This book is very informative. Much research went into this. It’s interesting to look and think about how women were perceived. You really need to focus and think for this book.

I fully admit, this book is far darker than I expected (though I should have). Whenever a great deal of money is a possibility and the only “obstacle” in your way is a woman without rights, it will usually go poorly for the woman in question.

The book begins by looking at a number of famous heiresses, both real and fictional- I loved this choice. It made me stop and think about just how pervasive the trope of the heiress is in fiction, and how many real life heiresses there have been throughout the last few centuries.

While the entire book was fascinating to me, I found the chapter on American heiresses particularly interesting. We see these “dollar duchesses” a lot in historical fiction and period dramas- Cora from Downton, anyone? Thompson gives us a much more intimate look at their lives, their situations, and what they went through both in the US and Europe. I think being read in the wider context of the entire book, these dollar duchesses take on a wholly different tone for me.

This book is the perfect choice for anyone watching HBO’s The Gilded Age, or is (im)patiently waiting for Sanditon and Bridgerton to return!

Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies by Laura Thompson is a history of women who inherited money from their families and how it affected their lives. Filled with historical data and referencing some remarks/comments made by contemporaries of each heiress helped showcase each heiress's life. An informative read that is full of insight and behind-the-scenes info that is sure to intrigue those who love reading about the rich and famous.

DNF, I just didn’t flow with the structure of the book. It seemed to jump around between people and events. The writing also felt too dry and didn’t maintain my interest.

Heiresses is an interesting book on the importance of money in a woman's life through centuries. It raises an all important question of does or did money give women the independence they rightfully deserve or the happiness that they craved for in their relationships and in their life.
The author starts the story of heiresses since 1665 and throughout the book gives us glimpses of heiresses till just after second world war. The stories and snippets the author shares in the book are interesting. The heiresses of the Paris era were especially very colorful. The freedom to live in the way they choose with the money they inherited or made would have been so satisfying. However the problem lies in the fact that there is no chapter assigned for each heiress and though the characters are interconnected it is very difficult to keep a track of everything that is going on.
Heiresses is a well researched book and gives a glimpse of the opulence and grandeur of the eras gone by. Just wish that some contemporary heiresses were featured as well. A bit more structured and I would have really loved it a bit more.

Money does not buy happiness. We do not know what goes on behind closed doors but in this book Laura Thompson affords us glimpses behind them into the lives of several heiresses. Obscene wealth does have its attractions, however. at least superficially. Some heiresses described had brilliant minds and used them, others less so. Several were kidnapped and forced into marriage, many managed to dwindle multi-million dollar inheritances by rash spending, others used money for good. All the stories here are supremely interesting.

Authors Sheridan Le Fanu, Henry James, Anthony Trollope and Nancy Mitford wrote about obscenely wealthy heiresses at a time when husbands had full control of money and land. Money is a powerful motivator and many fortune hunters went to the extremes in acquiring it including kidnapping and committing their wives to asylums. Others such as Mary Bowes chose awful men they should have avoided. Heiresses were never free. Inheritances were often seized, ransoms demanded. Some were even taken, drugged and upon waking were told they had married and had signed away everything. Clemintina Clerke was abducted at 14 and forced into marriage. As law backed men no matter what, women were powerless. In some cases it was naivety. Some men killed their wives, making murder appear accidental or like the women were drug addicts. Ellen Turner was abducted as a young teenager on the premise her father needed her. She spent time with two strange men in coaching inns! But there were also fake heiresses, too.

American heiresses such as Consuelo Yznaga who married European men (in her case, the Duke of Marlborough) were called buccaneers. So many of the marriages were unhappy, loads of adultery went on and lives ended up tragically (including suicide as was the case with stunning Gladys Deacon whose botched surgery changed her life). Diabetic Sunny Crawford's husband is said to have injected her with insulin, causing her to fall into a vegetative state for the rest of her life. Barbara Mackle was kidnapped and buried alive for a few days. Angela Burdett-Coutts seems to be a rarity in that she used her money (with exceptions, she couldn't resist jewels) for the good and worked with Ragged Schools with philanthropist Charles Dickens.

Venice, Paris and London were the "it" places, especially Venice where "one uses up so many red carpets in a season". Literally. An interesting sentiment. I adore Venice and often wonder who own this palazzo and that one. That level of wealth is unimaginable but so often came at too great a cost. Reading about the lives of such heiresses and inheritances is fascinating and thought provoking.

My sincere thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this awesome book which sent me down many wonderful rabbit holes, digging for further information.

I enjoyed going back in British history to meet Mary Davis in 1665. Not much is known fact about her, only her money was of any importance in her day. Her importance was that she owned the biggest and best chunk of land in London. When she was all of twelve years old she was bought into marriage by a man nine years her senior. His name far overshadowed hers and is well-known to those with any knowledge of London. Sir Thomas Grosvenor, by buying Mary Davis, set up his family to own some of the most valuable acreage on the planet. As the author, Laura Thompson, says " She was the winner in the real life of Monopoly." Grosvenor Square was started before her death and, in another 100 years, Belgravia would become home to some of the most powerful men in British society. All due to Mary Davis.
From Mary on through time we get a picture of how tough it was to be an heiress. Kidnappings were common place, daughters were routinely sold off, young women snatched, drugged and subjected to sham nuptials by shady clergy (which gave rise to the law requiring wedding bans and Gretna Green). If a woman did manage to hang on to her wealth, she had to be very smart and always on guard. As the book progresses the reader learns about law, society, women's rights (and the total lack of them in most cases) up to the heiresses of our time. These women have always been in the spotlight and I found it helpful that Ms. Thompson gave the reader comparisons to let the reader know instantly how a particular heiress was seen in her day. For example, Catherine Tylney Long, a Regency era heiress at the age of sixteen. "Had she been born 200 years later, she would have had a Kardashian-level following on Instagram". That was very helpful, indeed.
The book ends with an heiress who lived her best life with her money - Angela, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, a great Victorian philanthropist and a woman who earned the title of Baroness in her own right. She may have been destined to become an heiress but what she did with her money continues to benefit the world to this day.
My thanks to the publisher, St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 rounded to 4

The subject is women who inherited buckets of money, how they were treated, and how they lived.

Though the structure begins with the seventeenth century in England, and moves up to the twentieth century, occasionally Thompson jumps around, sometimes for comparison, and sometimes because of connections across generations. After all, the world of the English upper classes is pret-ty insular, and a goodly number of the early heiresses especially were daughters of titled families.

I almost bailed early on when we get a highly fictionalized account of the life of Mary Davies, whose tragic life gets an arch, sarcastic summary by Thompson, full of innuendo without much academic backup. But once Thompson got that out of her system (and it might have been punched up to draw in the reader) there is a lot more reference to primary sources as she settles in to describe the jaw-droppingly awful state of women's rights during those centuries, and how heiress kidnapping and forced marriages was next thing to an established market. So very many of these heiresses were thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, too. Yuk. Not that certain super-rich widows faired much better.

Gradually she brings us up through the Victorian period when, at last, the beginnings of laws to protect women slowly began to trickle through Parliament. (Prodded by the cases of rich women--the plights of ordinary women are acknowledged, but lie outside the scope of this book.)

At the far end of the nineteenth century are the famous cases of the Buccaneers--wealthy American women who came over wanting titles. Thompson outlines the very well known ones, of course, including a look at Edith Wharton's world, but includes the not-famous, underscoring Wharton's theme that money and titles did not buy happiness: the women who lucked out were more often than not educated, with goals of their own besides being married.

Which sets us up for the Coco Chanel era--fin de siecle and early twentieth century, specifically rich women who lived for themselves, many of them outside wedlock, or not being married at all. A lot of these women became salonistes, or patrons of the arts, and lead the sorts of lives depicted in books and films, hobnobbing with artists and intellectuals, politicians and diplomats, or career adventurers of both sexes.

These women benefitted not only from a gradual push toward more equality before the law--and from being raised to be self-sufficient.

The book ends at the end of the twentieth century, with a grim look at Patty Hearst and Barbara Mackle, with a brief glance at the recent con artist who convinced New York she was an heiress, and bilked a lot of savvy business people of millions before she landed in jail (and with a boffo Netflix deal).

It's an engaging read, though with so broad a scope it's not surprising that it lacks depth.

A collection of mini-biographies of ladies of wealth who flourish (few) or suffer (most) depending on their placement in history and their smarts. Each story highlights the calculating nature of courters and families who wish to dig their claws into heiresses wealth and the limitations of women's rights. A good read for anyone interested in the history of women's rights and suppression.

This book was not at all what I was expecting. I was thinking more along the lines of juicy gossip about famous (and maybe not so famous) heiresses. Instead, the first part of the book covered heiresses in fiction. Then it went to actual heiresses, rambling all over the place, in an order that didn't seem to make any sense. The writing was too dry and textbook style - this book was clearly not for me.

This book was very different from what I was expecting. I was looking forward to a book highlighting the lives of several heiresses throughout history – balancing the positives and the negatives. Instead, this book was more in the style of an educational treatise on themes surrounding heiresses' (mostly troubled) lives.

I did enjoy the Epilogue and the discussion of Dickens and Angela, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts. I liked it for its use of facts in a way that told a cohesive and entertaining story about her life.

This book is factual and educational with an extensive list of facts, names, and dates. At times, these facts are scattered about with little holding the story together. It was very obviously well researched, but the story suffered because it lacked cohesiveness.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading an analysis of issues facing heiresses throughout history.

it's true that large amounts of money doesn't mean happiness. The women in this well researched and entertaining group biography all struggled with their families, their position in society, and themselves. Some of them will no doubt be familiar (Patty Hearst, Barbara Hutton) but others, ,such as Nancy Cunard and Daisy Fellows are less well known. It's not the gossipy book you might be expecting but it is illuminating, I found myself doing additional research on a couple of the women. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

HEIRESSES: THE LIVES OF THE MILLION DOLLAR BABIES is an in-depth look at the myths, mysteries, facts and scandals of heiresses from all over Europe and America, spanning from the 17th century all the way to the present. Inside are stories of kidnappings, elopements, theft, and of course, fortune.

First and foremost, if you are looking for light, fun biographies about heiresses, look elsewhere. Thompson does speak in-depth about the individual heiress, however, the information comes off sporadically and not all put together. To me, this read more as a study of what it means to be an heiress versus the individual heiress. Despite this, it was enjoyable in parts.

There were women I knew about, and a lot more that I had never heard of before. The introduction to these women were enthralling. But, only just so. It read so academically that it was hard to focus sometimes. This is a great book if you're into this sort of subject, but with that being said, it was extremely dry for me in huge bulks of the work and I want to say this was mostly because, again, it was less of a study of individual women, and more of a study of what it meant to be these women.

All in all, I liked it. I would recommend it to friends who I knew liked this sort of reading material and who would enjoy it.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review!~