SKU: 9807028610

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune

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Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times St. Louis Post Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty first

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Janet Maslin, The New York Times - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?

Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark's cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world.

Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else.

The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic.

Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette's copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms.

Praise for Empty Mansions

"An amazing story of profligate wealth . . . an outsized tale of rags-to-riches prosperity."--The New York Times

"An evocative and rollicking read, part social history, part hothouse mystery, part grand guignol."--The Daily Beast

"Fascinating . . . a] haunting true-life tale."--People

"One of those incredible stories that you didn't even know existed. It filled a void."--Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

"Thrilling . . . deliciously scandalous."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)


Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 09/10/2013
ISBN: 9780345534521
Pages: 456
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.60w x 1.30d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2013
Booklist 09/01/2013 pg. 20
Library Journal 09/15/2013 pg. 79
Publishers Weekly 09/16/2013
People Weekly 11/04/2013 pg. 53
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SKU: 9807028610

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Jammie Clark
Whiting, US
★★★★★ 4
A good read
Format: Kindle
Multiple points of view. 3 Alpha men and an Omega male. She is a Beta in training for a new program placing betas in Alpha/Omega packs. Mila is only doing the program for the money to take care of her dad. She wasn't expecting to fall for a pack but when she sees this packs Omega she is done for. There is just something about him. His Alphas are good looking as well. Too bad she is hiding a secret and their government is acting shady. I liked it and can't wait to see where their story goes.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2023
B
Verified Purchase
Bri Hires
Phoenix, US
★★★★★ 3
Slightly repetitive but I did love some things
Format: Kindle
I love this type of story. And omegaverse is one of my all time favorite genres. But there are a few things that pulled me out of my enjoyment while I was reading. It was repetitive at times as well as struggled with telling not showing. So we didn’t always feel like we were experiencing things with the main character. There were also some plot holes but they may still be answered in part 2. Now this isn’t to be said I didn’t enjoy parts of the story. I loved the almost instant love between Mila and Oliver. And how he started changing around her.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2024
K
Verified Purchase
Kimberly G
Birmingham, US
★★★★★ 5
delightful read
Format: Kindle
What a delightful read. The characters are awesome, the plot was so good, I loved it. I was intrigued and it kept me wanting more. Told in multiple pov, the book sucks you in and doesn’t let go. I cannot wait to read the next book.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2025
K
Verified Purchase
Kimberly B
Port Orchard, US
★★★★★ 4
not bad
Format: Kindle
I loved the plot of this book. The characters just didn’t have a lot of depth. The connections and “love” just weren’t communicated very well in the writing. The author didn’t write the sweet psycho trope very well at all either. Lachlan was just a mess of a character.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2023
C
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Carmen Alicea
Phoenix, US
★★★★★ 5
A Beta Worth Rooting For
Format: Kindle
In Spare, Violet Fox flips the omegaverse on its head, giving us a Beta heroine determined to make her mark. Joining the Beta Trials to support her sick father, she's thrown into a pack that doesn't want her, especially the possessive Alphas. But here's the twist: their sweet Omega turns out to be her scent match. Cue the angst, forbidden tension, and a slow-burn romance that will make your heart ache in the best way. Violet Fox delivers an emotional, refreshing take on the genre, proving Betas aren't "spares." They're stars.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2025

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