May 12

The Glitter and the Gold

By Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan

Ever since we visited Blenheim Palace in 2009, I've been intrigued by Consuelo Vanderbilt.  The only daughter of railroad baron William K Vanderbilt, she was groomed by her mother to be a princess.  Her mother conversed with her in French and forced her to wear a special brace to keep her head erect. As the most eligible young lady of her generation, she was pushed into a loveless marriage by her mother to the cash-strapped Duke of Marlborough.  The Duke received $10M upon their marriage and $2.5M every year thereafter, even in the event of a divorce. Consuelo produced two sons ("an heir and a spare"), but the couple were poorly matched and the marriage did not last.  Consuelo was well-educated, attractive, fashionable, and charitable.  She reached out to her husband's constituents, especially the poor, and founded a hospital to treat casualties of the Great War.  Even after her divorce, she appeared to be loved and respected.  Consuelo eventually met the "gold" in her second husband, Jacques Balsan, whom she first briefly met at age 17 and to whom she was happily married for decades.  The book got bogged down a bit in the accounts of all the Balsans' parties and dinner guests, but Consuelo surely lived an interesting life.

The Wikipedia entry on Consuelo indicate that this book was actually ghostwritten by Stuart Preston. My copy had several missing pages, but I believe the book ends with WW2, and was first published in 1953.