The Glitter and the Gold

The American Duchess - In Her Own Words

By: Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfill her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home: Blenheim Palace.

The ninth Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era. An unsnobbish, but often amused observer of the intricate hierarchy both upstairs and downstairs at Blenheim Palace, she is also a revealing witness to the glittering balls, huge weekend parties, and major state occasions she attended or hosted. Here are her encounters with every important figure of the day - from Queen Victoria, Edward VII, and Queen Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas, Prince Metternich, and the young Winston Churchill.

This intimate, richly enjoyable memoir is a wonderfully revealing portrait of a golden age.

©1953 Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A woman of poise, beauty, and charm looks back on her life at the very center of the most opulent and aristocratic society of three countries, the United States, Britain, and France... and emerges... a woman of courage, public spirit, refinement, and surprisingly democratic convictions." ( The New York Times)

Speed reading

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The book was interesting. It was a "surface" autobiography, There was not much depth to it. It was more along the lines of a fluff magazine story. The narrator spoke so quickly in so very many places I repeatedly had to replay sections of the story to try to figure out what she was saying. I would like to have known more about her life after she returned to the United States.

What didn’t you like about Coleen Marlo’s performance?

She read as though she was going to run out of time to get the whole story read.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes

loved listening to this book.

This is a great book I love biographies. you must listen to Fortunes Children first, so you can learn about her family as she was growing up.

Bad narrator

For goodness sake, why is it so impossible to get a narrator that can pronounce words and names correctly! Unbelievably frustrating. English places are titles incorrectly pronounced, ditto French ones.

interesting history

great narration. interesting history lesson. beautiful storytelling. pleasure reading. do indulge yourself in a bit of storytelling.

The reader- ugh

Consuelo seems a lovely woman with a great story, but the reader, while good at reading in foreign languages, mispronounced several things in English and read in a breathless, affected way that made Consuelo’s story seem insincere.

Fascinating story, poorly narrated

The story is terrific for the view into British and American society of the period. Narration, however, is both pretentious in tone, and riddled with weird mispronunciations of English and foreign words.

love the personal touch to history.

Enjoyed seeing history from a personal perspective. and how life a politics change over one lifetime.

Entertaining w/ very distracting mispronunciation

What made the experience of listening to The Glitter and the Gold the most enjoyable?

Very enjoyable, especially if you are familiar with the public figures of the Edwardian period. Wonderful descriptions of the upper class life style of the time.

Would you be willing to try another one of Coleen Marlo’s performances?

Not unless I was very eager to listen to the book, which in this case, I was. She was obviously trying to affect a "posh" American accent and rightly so. However, her constant mispronunciations in her reading made me gnash my teeth!

Genuinely one of my favorites

This book is just chalk full of Edwardian name dropping and charming anicdotes. I have no idea why it hasn’t been made into a costume miniseries. It is a memior not a biography so be aware it is a biased source and does skip over some interesting stuff like how she got with her second husband.

Just couldn’t listen

The narrator is not good. I found it difficult to even get past the first chapter. In fact I did not.