Product Description

The beautiful Langhorne sisters lived at the pinnacle of society from the end of the Civil War through the Second World War. Born in Virginia to a family impoverished by the Civil War, Lizzie, Irene, Nancy, Phyllis, and Nora eventually made their way across two continents, leaving rich husbands, fame, adoration, and scandal in their wake.

At the center of the story is Nancy, who married Waldorf Astor, one of the richest men in the world. Heroic, hilarious, magnetically charming, and a bully, Nancy became Britain's first female MP. The beautiful Irene married Charles Dana Gibson and was the model for the Gibson Girl. Phyllis, the author's grandmother, married a famous economist, one of the architects of modern Europe. Author James Fox draws on the sisters' unpublished correspondence to construct an intimate and sweeping account of five extraordinary women at the highest reaches of society.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #495424 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-02
• Released on: 2001-05-02
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .2 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

From Amazon.com
With the same narrative panache and gift for good gossip that made White Mischief such fun, James Fox turns his attention here to the Langhorne sisters, Southern beauties who wielded a powerful influence in politics and culture during the tumultuous years from the turn of the 20th century through the Second World War. Lizzie (1867-1914) married a Virginian and stayed home, but her siblings conquered Yankee America and England. Irene (1873-1956) married Charles Dana Gibson and served as the model for that all-American icon, the Gibson girl. Baby sister Nora (1889-1955), dreamy and artistic, had a turbulent life scattered with lovers including, perhaps, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Nancy (1879-1964) entered English society through second husband Waldorf Astor and focused her formidable energies on politics as the first female member of Parliament and hostess to the notorious "Cliveden set." Sensitive, introspective Phyllis (1880-1937), the author's grandmother, survived a bad first marriage and an affair with a British officer to happily wed the brilliant English economist Bob Brand. Fox makes excellent use of thousands of the sisters' letters to reveal five dynamic personalities in their own words. His shrewd commentary provides context for a riveting tale of family ties, social commitments, and the complex interplay between them that shaped the Langhorne women's lives. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly
Beginning in the genteel poverty of post- Civil War Richmond, Va., transformed by Langhorne pere's belated success as a railroad tycoon, the Langhorne sisters' trajectories spanned the upper reaches of Anglo-American society. The oldest, Lizzie, remained within the confines of Richmond's narrow-minded aristocracy; the next, Irene, identified by Fox without explanation as "the last great Southern Belle," married Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the Gibson Girl; the third, Nancy, became Lady Astor and the first woman elected to the British Parliament (1919); the fourth, Phyllis, married Robert Brand, a brilliant civil servant once dubbed "the wisest man in the [British] Empire;" the fifth, Nora, a perennial embarrassment and pathological liar, nonetheless inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald to sober up temporarily during the last desperate phase of his life. Ideally, their story could illuminate the strengths and limitations of the aristocratic milieu these women arose from and partly refashioned, when juxtaposed with the broadest imaginable array of outside influences they encountered, while also providing an engrossing portrait of remarkable individuals, clashing in multiple ways with norms as well as stereotypes of their times. Instead, readers are shortchanged and will be put off by an excessive focus on Lady Astor (Lizzie and Irene are almost totally ignored, Phyllis plays second fiddle and Nora left field) and an overemphasis on drearily repetitive aspects of dysfunctional family life (while crucial aspects of social context are left unexplained), as if the author, a grandson of Phyllis (and author of the bestselling White Mischief), were still trying to exorcise family ghosts. Fascinating hints abound, isolated episodes are brilliant, but repeated tragic blindness on the part of these five women, as related by Fox, readily blots out all else. Photos. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Fox (White Mischief) turns to his family lore and newly discovered letters to bring the Langhorne sisters back into Anglo-American consciousness. Fox traces their lives from their Virginia births, to the dark days of post-Civil War poverty, to the years after their father made a fortune in railroads and they "came out" into New York and English society. And come out they did. Nancy became the most famous Langhorne after her marriage to Lord Waldorf Astor; as Lady Astor, she advocated for women's rights and became the first woman MP in Parliament. Irene, who married Charles Dana Gibson--creator of "The Gibson Girl"--won her own following as the embodiment of wholesome glamour for a generation. Phyllis, who remained in Virginia, presided over the family estate. With genius and grace, Fox tells their stories, revealing, along the way, the many sinews of culture that bound together the Anglo-American upper-class mystique. This book is what the English call "a rollicking good read" in every sense. For all public and academic libraries.
-Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.