I loved this book! The authors did a great job of giving the reader all sorts of information; not only on the trend of poor English lord marrying rich American heiress, but also the social rules and etiquette in American and England. The one criticism I have is about the layout. There is so much information and in between chapters there were too many inserts. Other than that, it is a fun read and a must for the anglophiles!

Very informative.

A very interesting look at the late Victorian trend of American women marrying British peers and the different values of the countrymen involved.

My friend asked me of this book was about "the Coras," and the answer is yes. If you've watched Downton Abby, you know that Cora was an American heiress whose fortune saved the family. This (non-fiction) book is about how that happened, and the results. I listened to this as an audiobook and really enjoyed it.

3.5. Very interesting. Loads of great information and pictures but it read too much like a textbook for my liking.

Inspired Downton Abbey! And they got the "what is a weekend?" line from here.

The story of Buccaneers/Dollar Princesses never gets old. This is an account of most, if not all, the American women who crossed the pond to exchange money for titles. The book is very informative, but I hate the layout. I describe it as "magazine style." In the middle of a section a new little piece will pop up. I found it very annoying and some what disjointed to be interrupted like that. To each their own. Now I have two more books to read about the very fascinating Consuelo Vanderbilt.

An entertaining, gossipy look at the phenomenon of American heiresses marrying titled British aristocrats, which took place from the 1870s to the early 1900s. Shut out by the old money society of New York epitomized by Caroline Astor's "400," these nouveau riche families sought out social acceptability across the Atlantic instead. They launched their pert, pretty, privileged daughters into a hidebound British society which at first balked at the girls as little more than savages, but soon came to see that the girls' vast fortunes were just what their crumbling estates needed.

The book moves more or less chronologically, showing the phases of this phenomenon, from the "Buccaneers" like Jennie Jerome (mother of Winston Churchill) and Consuelo Yznaga, who led the charge into aristocratic marriages, to the Self-Made Girls like midwestern beauty Jeannie Chamberlain, to the later American Aristocrats, who often had spent more time in England than in America and saw themselves as every bit as worthy as the British aristocrats they married. Threaded through all these eras of "dollar princesses" is the fascination and support of Prince Albert, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), who admired and accepted the American arrivistes, giving them social acceptability and even encouraging matches between the girls and various titled men. The book also delves into lots of fascinating detail about the fashions, entertainments, manners, morals, and etiquette of both the British ruling families and the American families determined to crack into their insular institution. Worth gowns by the dozen, luxurious "cottages" in Newport, portraits done by John Singer Sargent, house parties with Prince Albert -- the book paints a vivid picture of the world in which these women lived.

A fascinating look at what was truly a fairly tawdry trend of the daughters of American robber barons and industrialists being groomed and brought up to be more or less sold off to impecunious dukes, earls, marquesses, and barons. A short-lived but intriguing period of time, and one that had a huge impact on the British aristocracy which is still felt today. Without the marriage of heiress Frances Work to the Baron Fermoy, after all, there would have been no Princess Diana, and no Princes William or George -- future kings, both.

The information in this book was great. The layout was a nightmare. It was clearly designed for clumps of information to be put together in sections. If I was interested in one piece this might have been ideal. But reading it through was tough. Especially since I did a audio book/physical book hybrid (for pragmatic reasons). There also seemed to be a lot of repeated info.

But props for the beautiful painting of Consuelo Vanderbilt on the cover.

This had its moments, but also had times where I would lose the thread of a story because of a two or three page break in the layout for some sidebar type information. The information was overall enjoyable, but maintaining continuity was challenging. The wealth of pictures is fun in and of itself, as well as the detailed glimpse into a glitteringly wealthy set of American society.