Author: Ennie Smith
Publisher: Ennie Smith
ISBN: 963128770X
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 199
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Book Description
Six girls and a ball where they can sparkle and shine like princesses. A story of a seventeen-year-old girl named Emma Derkin and five other girls, who just like every young girl back then, wanted to find the best possible husband at the debutante ball. The events unfold during the Victorian era in a girls' school dormitory. We are privy to follow the girls as they painstakingly prepare for the ball, as well as to watch the relationships that are formed between the girls. And, of course, the main event, the coming out ball, for which everyone has been getting ready. But love is unpredictable, and fate never fashions things the way we imagine it. This book is not just meant primarily for young girls and fans of Jane Austen novels, but the topic is equally enjoyable for every adult woman.
Author: Kristen Richardson
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0393358534
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
A Smithsonian Best History Book of 2019 In this enthralling history of the debutante ritual, Kristen Richardson sheds new light on contemporary ideas about women and marriage. Kristen Richardson, from a family of debutantes, chose not to debut. But as her curiosity drove her to research this enduring custom, she learned that it, and debutantes, are not as simple as they seem. The story begins in England six hundred years ago when wealthy fathers needed an efficient way to find appropriate husbands for their daughters. Elizabeth I’s exclusive presentations at her court expanded into London’s full season of dances, dinners, and courting, extending eventually to the many corners of the British empire and beyond. Richardson traces the social seasons of young women on both sides of the Atlantic, from Georgian England to colonial Philadelphia, from the Antebellum South and Wharton’s New York back to England, where debutante daughters of Gilded Age millionaires sought to marry British aristocrats. She delves into Jazz Age debuts, carnival balls in the American South, and the reimagined ritual of elite African American communities, which offers both social polish and academic scholarships. The Season shares the captivating stories of these young women, often through their words from diaries, letters, and interviews that Richardson conducted at contemporary balls. The debutantes give voice to an array of complex feelings about being put on display, about the young men they meet, and about what their future in society or as wives might be. While exploring why the debutante tradition persists—and why it has spread to Russia, China, and other nations—Richardson has uncovered its extensive cultural influence on the lives of daughters in Britain and the US and how they have come to marry.
Author: Julia Kelly
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982171650
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
In this “glorious dance through the traditional glamour and suffocating expectations of a bygone era” (Genevieve Graham, USA TODAY bestselling author), a group of young women are swept up in a life-changing journey as they become three of the last debutantes to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II. When it’s announced that 1958 will be the last year debutantes are to be presented at court, thousands of eager mothers and hopeful daughters flood the palace with letters seeking the year’s most coveted invitation: a chance for their daughters to curtsy to the young Queen Elizabeth and officially come out into society. In an effort to appease her traditional mother, aspiring university student Lily Nichols agrees to become a debutante and do the Season, a glittering and grueling string of countless balls and cocktail parties. In doing so, she befriends two very different women: the cool and aloof Leana Hartford whose apparent perfection hides a darker side and the ambitious Katherine Norman who dreams of a career once she helps her parents find their place among the elite. But the glorious effervescence of the Season evaporates once Lily learns a devastating secret that threatens to destroy her entire family. “Woven with heartfelt emotion, this novel is a captivating, unforgettable story of one woman’s journey to find love, truth, and, most importantly, herself” (Kelly Bowen, author of The Paris Apartment) in midcentury Great Britain.
Author: June Flaum Singer
Publisher: Dissertation.com
ISBN: 9780595090648
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
"Loaded with glamour and beauty."Publishers Weekly
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 1368044336
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 325
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Book Description
No one is quite who they seem to be in the twisty, soapy, gasp-inducing world of the Debutantes by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, #1 bestselling author of The Inheritance Games. Think of the White Gloves like the Junior League— by way of Skull and Bones. Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite, and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group's ranks may have the answers she's looking for. Things are looking up . . . until Sawyer and the White Gloves make a disturbing discovery near the family's summer home—and uncover a twisted secret, decades in the making. ** Check out Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s bestselling The Naturals and Inheritance Games series!!
Author: Lucinda Gosling
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0747813337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 123
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Book Description
Until the middle of the last century, London's social calendar was dominated by 'the Season', a round of social events and parties during which the daughters of the upper classes made their 'debuts'. Debutantes and their families descended on the capital from all over Britain to take part in this elaborate process that in its blend of glamour, great privilege and archaic and sometimes comic ritual is emblematic of a world now lost. From the preparations and formalities of court presentation to the exhausting round of parties that followed, Debutantes and the London Season is a detailed look at a phenomenon that was central to the lives of generations of privileged young ladies.
Author: Georgie Blalock
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063009307
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 342
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Book Description
Fans of The Kennedy Debutante and Next Year in Havana will love Georgie Blalock’s new novel of a world on the cusp of change...set on the eve of World War II in the glittering world of English society and one of the last debutante seasons. They danced the night away, knowing their world was about to change forever. They were the debutantes of 1939, laughing on the outside, but knowing tragedy— and a war—was just around the corner. When Valerie de Vere Cole, the niece of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, makes her deep curtsey to the King and Queen of England, she knows she’s part of a world about to end. The daughter of a debt-ridden father and a neglectful mother, Valerie sees firsthand that war is imminent. Nevertheless, Valerie reinvents herself as a carefree and glittering young society woman, befriending other debutantes from England’s aristocracy as well as the vivacious Eunice Kennedy, daughter of the U.S. Ambassador. Despite her social success, the world’s troubles and Valerie’s fear of loss and loneliness prove impossible to ignore. How will she navigate her new life when everything in her past has taught her that happiness and stability are as fragile as peace in our time? For the moment she will forget her cares in too much champagne and waltzes. Because very soon, Valerie knows that she must find the inner strength to stand strong and carry on through the challenges of life and love and war.
Author: Kathleen Tessaro
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062014315
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 402
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Book Description
A brilliant, unforgettable novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfume Collector. Can the secrets of one woman's past change another woman's future? Cate Albion is a gifted young artist at a crossroads in her life. Looking to escape New York for the summer, she takes a job in her aunt's London auction house and is soon sent on assignment to the English countryside to value the contents of Endsleigh House, the once gracious but now crumbling estate of a former Jazz Age socialite. There, hidden in the back of a dusty bookshelf, Cate discovers an old shoebox, and inside, a peculiar assortment of objects, including an exquisite pair of 1930s dancing shoes; a faded photograph of a handsome young sailor, and a rare Tiffany pearl and emerald bracelet. Intrigued, Cate sets out to learn more about the box and its contents, and becomes immersed in the mystery of its owner, Diana “Baby” Blythe, the younger of the infamous, glamorous Blythe sisters. Bright, beautiful, and reckless, Baby was the most famous debutante of her generation . . . until she suddenly disappeared entirely from view. As a shocking tale of love and betrayal begins to unravel, Cate finds herself being drawn deeper into Baby's tragic life story—one that will force Cate to confront some dark truths about her own choices.
Author: Julia London
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416524967
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385
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Book Description
Fans of Bridgerton will fall in love with Julia London’s New York Times bestselling “witty, spicy, and funny” (Library Journal) Desperate Debutantes trilogy, in which three aristocratic sisters, upon discovering they are destitute, resort to desperate means to keep up appearances...and find the husbands of their dreams. The young ladies of the Fairchild family have just learned that their stepfather has absconded with their late mother’s fortune. Ava, the eldest, decides to take matters into her own hands and hunts down the notoriously wealthy rakehell Jared Broderick, the Marquis of Middleton and heir to a dukedom. Much to her shock and delight, the marquis sweeps her into a whirlwind romance and proposes marriage. But after their passionate wedding night, Ava discovers Jared has ulterior motives of his own. Not only does he expect her to deliver an heir while he continues to enjoy a rogue’s life, but Ava also suspects she is a pawn in her husband’s quest for revenge. Marriages of convenience might work for some, but for Ava, a loveless bond won’t do. So she devises a bold plan to confront her husband’s demons so that he will be free to give her his heart for the right reason: because she is the only woman he will ever truly desire.
Author: Kerri Maher
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451492056
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 402
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Book Description
“A riveting reimagining of a true tale of forbidden love.”—People The captivating novel following the exploits of Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, the forgotten and rebellious daughter of one of America's greatest political dynasties. London, 1938. The effervescent "It girl" of London society since her father was named the ambassador, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy moves in rarefied circles, rubbing satin-covered elbows with some of the twentieth century's most powerful figures. Eager to escape the watchful eye of her strict mother, Rose; the antics of her older brothers, Jack and Joe; and the erratic behavior of her sister Rosemary, Kick is ready to strike out on her own and is soon swept off her feet by Billy Hartington, the future Duke of Devonshire. But their love is forbidden, as Kick's devout Catholic family and Billy's staunchly Protestant one would never approve their match. And when war breaks like a tidal wave across her world, Billy is ripped from her arms as the Kennedys are forced to return to the States. Kick finds work as a journalist and joins the Red Cross to get back to England, where she will have to decide where her true loyalties lie—with family or with love....
