The Glitter and the Gold: The American Duchess---In Her Own Words

By Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan and Consuela Vanderbilt Balsan

Book Overview

A new edition of Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan's memoir―the story of the "real" Gladys Russell of The Gilded Age.

Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful, and heir to a vast fortune. She was also in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to marry an English Duke. She sailed to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home―Blenheim Palace. She was the real American heiress who lived long before Gladys Russell of The Gilded Age arrived.

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan was a generous, welcoming, and amused observer of the intricate hierarchy in which she lived - both upstairs and downstairs. She was a perceptive witness to glittering balls, huge weekend parties, and major state occasions she attended or hosted allowing her to chronicle her encounters with every important figure of the day―from Queen Victoria, Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas and the young Winston Churchill.

The Glitter and the Gold is a richly enjoyable memoir and a revealing true portrait of a time and the life of a young woman now being celebrated every week in The Gilded Age.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250017181
• ISBN13: 9781250017185
• Release Date: October 2012
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Vanderbilt Family

A comprehensive look at several generations of the Vanderbilt family, particularly Consuelo, and the enormous wealth they enjoyed.

The Glitter and the Gold

Excellent book to read. Right from the person who had lived it.

I love this book!

This book is so much fun. If you're interested in the history of the upper class in the US or England, it is well worth checking this book out. Parts of it are laugh-out-loud funny, such as the description of dinner with the Duke; others are edge-of-your-seat exciting, such has her escape from the oncoming Germans in WWI; and others are just poignant, such as some of the anecdotes from her childhood. Like other reviewers, I do wish she had given more detail. She is a classy lady, though, and only kisses and tells about those she thinks really deserve it (mainly her first husband). Less fun for the reader, but there's still enough juicy gossip to keep me interested.It is inexpertly written, but I think this ads to the book's charm. Mrs. Balsan obviously wrote it herself instead of taking the modern route and finding a ghost-writer.If you enjoy this book, check out "To Marry and English Lord," which expands on Consuelo's story by talking about many other young hieresses of the time who married abroad.

Fascinating Life

The Glitter and the Gold serves as a compelling and fascinating account of turn-of-the-century aristocratic life from the intimate and candid memoirs of one of America's most famous heiresses, Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, the former Duchess of Marlborough and wealthy daughter of the American Vanderbilt legacy.I decided to read this book after the enthusiastic advise of one of those English blue-badge guides on what must have been my third visit to the infamous Blenheim Palace, aristocratic home to all the Dukes of Marlborough since the first Duke was given the palace by royal decree from Queen Anne in the 18th Century.I was immensely intrigued as to how a young nouveau riche American debutante from New York City came to be married to the very aristocratic and the very English 9th Duke of Marlborough in 1895. To this end the book delivers.Although long on pretension and short on emotion and passion, Vanderbilt-Balsan is a fine writer. Through her words unfolds the mostly sad story of ambitious mothers, immense privilege, suitable marriages, exchanges of new money for old titles and heartbreaking loneliness. She cuts a rather sad and remote figure wandering alone and somewhat lost around the enormous and very cold Blenheim Palace - a loneliness that is foretold in the John Singer Sargent family portrait that still hangs today in the Duke's private quarters in the palace.Extremely well educated and fluent in three languages, Vanderbilt-Balsan served her husband and her new country well. She delivered the "heir and the spare" that was expected of her and, in time, moved out of her husbands shadow and eventually his life. Through her own resilience we see emerge an extremely dignified, graceful and independent woman who became a tireless worker and philanthropist, both politically and socially, on behalf of the rights of women and children in England and later in France.Vanderbilt-Balsan's accounts also serve as an eyewitness documentary to the golden age of Victorian and Edwardian society in England as well as America and France. She also lived and worked near the front lines of both World War I and II. She had access to some of the most intriguing artists, statesmen and celebrities of the early twentieth century as well as serving an assortment of English Kings, Queens and Princes. Her nephew by marriage, Winston Churchill, was prematurely born in her bedroom during one of the many weekend functions she was obliged to host as the Duchess of Marlborough. She remained close to Churchill throughout her life.Her legacy to Blenheim Palace is still felt today; her son, the 10th Duke of Marlborough, was the first to open the gates of the stunning and historically significant palace to the public and those gates remain open today. I would suggest this book as a must-read for anyone planning a visit to Blenheim Palace or anyone curious to the social customs of the early 20th Century.

An Incredible Life!

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan had one of the most amazing, extraordinary lives of anyone in American history. Raised into mind-boggling wealth on Fifth Avenue, Consuelo had the misfortune of having Alva as her power-mad mother. Alva, in fact, locked away her strikingly tall, dark daughter and kept her prisoner until she agreed to marry the arrogant, weak and some say violent, Duke of Marlborough. She became the mistress, in l895, of Blenheim, a palace so big that she never even knew how many rooms it had. The author describes fascinating years of having royalty as her guests, visiting Czarist Russis before the Revolution, life as a dutchess, her divorce and subsequent marriage to Jacques Balsan. Unfortunately, Consuelo glosses over the sensational headlines in the 20s, caused by her divorce from the Duke. Even for a Vanderbilt woman, born into inconceivable wealth and power, Consuelo stood out with her extraordinary personality. Of all the "Dollar Princesses", those wealthy American women who wed royalty in the late l890s and early 20th Century, Consuelo is the only one who acted like she was born into royalty. This is a knockout memoir, despite its glossing over of sensitive segments of her life. By the way, the paperback edition curiously omits the great shots of Blenheim Palace found in the original hardback. A must-read. A genuine classic.