INVASION OF THE STATUS SNATCHERS
The Husband Hunters Anne de Courcy Weidenfeld & Nicolson €18.50 ★★★★★
During the last quarter of the 19th century, 40 rich American girls married into the British peerage. The deal could best be described as ‘cash for coronets’. The young Earl of Somewhere got a huge injection of dollars to rescue his crumbling country pile from the bailiffs; and in return Miss Money Bags grabbed a title, a coat of arms and a chance to hobnob with the royal family. What could possibly go wrong?
Quite a lot, as it turns out. Far from being matches made in heaven, these arranged marriages often resulted in scandal and despair.
Consuelo Mandeville’s new husband, heir to the Duke of Manchester, spent his days – and her fortune – on his mistress while his bride was banished to a castle in Northern Ireland.
Irish-born writer Gertrude Blood married Lord Colin Campbell, the son of the Duke of Argyll, who soon infected his beautiful bride with venereal disease. When she tried to protest by seeking a divorce, she found herself ostracised by polite society.
The problem, suggests Anne de Courcy, was that the very thing that made these women so attractive – apart from the one billion dollars that they brought with them – proved to be their greatest liability. To put it bluntly, they had been brought up to think very highly of themselves.
Well-educated, multilingual and accustomed to talking to men as equals, girls such as Mildred Sherman and Jennie Jerome (Winston Churchill’s mother) initially cut a fabulous dash compared with the dowdy daughters of English peers who were used to keeping quiet and doing what they were told. But over time, a nobleman could come to find that kind of confidence tiresome.
This is a sparkling and richly entertaining account of an intriguing and unusual culture clash.