The Transatlantic Marriage Bureau. Husband hunting in the Gilded Age: How American Heiresses Conquered the Aristocracy by Julie Ferry
When Consuelo Vanderbilt was presented to Minnie Paget by her domineering mother Alva, she found herself 'being critically appraised by a pair of hard green eyes'. Beautiful, ethereal and fantastically wealthy, Consuelo passed the test to see if she'd be a suitable bride for a duke and became the Duchess of Marlborough in a 'cash for coronets' match. Aided by Minnie, who she later described as 'Becky Sharp incarnate' and forced by Alva into the marriage, when she was really in love with handsome Winthrop Rutherford, Consuelo was unhappy for years.
She wasn't the only one in such a marriage. She was named after her mother's friend Consuelo Yznaga, who married the Duke of Manchester. He was a gambler and philanderer, so the marriage was famously unhappy. Consuelo had rather a tragic life, enduring the deaths of twin daughters.
Many of these marriages were unhappy. Brought up like princesses with the world at their feet, many of these American girls were used to every comfort and brought up to naturally think that marriages should be for love. Even if they were in love, like Consuelo Yznaga, they often found that their husbands were much more interested in their money than in them. They usually had to put up with cold, draughty old-fashioned houses with few 'home comforts, while they struggled to please their parents-in-law and learn English aristocratic ways. Luckily, they were mostly extremely resilient, overcoming prejudice, scandals and even lack of money in their new homeland.
This book was more novelistic and speculative than Husband Hunting, but it also contained more analysis of these women and of the economic circumstances of the time, I thought. Both were good, but I preferred Julie Ferry's writing. These women and their marriages are endlessly fascinating, so I am likely to review more books about them!
I reviewed this book for Rose City Reader's 22 for '22 Challenge.
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