Peggy

A Novel

By: Rebecca Godfrey, Leslie Jamison

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Leslie Jamison

A dazzling, richly imagined novel about Peggy Guggenheim—a story of art, family, love, and becoming oneself—by the award-winning author of Under the Bridge, now a Hulu limited series starring Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone

“Godfrey brilliantly resurrects the avant-garde adventurer Peggy Guggenheim as a feminist icon for our times.”—Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation

“Magnificent . . . Readers will be won over by Godfrey’s incandescent portrait of a singular woman.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Venice, 1958. Peggy Guggenheim, heiress and now legendary art collector, sits in the sun at her white marble palazzo on the Grand Canal. She’s in a reflective mood, thinking back on her thrilling, tragic, nearly impossible journey from her sheltered, old-fashioned family in New York to here: iconoclast and independent woman.

Rebecca Godfrey’s Peggy is a blazingly fresh interpretation of a woman who defies every expectation to become an original. The daughter of two Jewish dynasties, Peggy finds her cloistered life turned upside down at fourteen, when her beloved father perishes on the Titanic. His death prompts Peggy to seek a life of passion and personal freedom and, above all, to believe in the transformative power of art. We follow Peggy as she makes her way through the glamorous but sexist and anti-Semitic art worlds of New York and Europe and meet the numerous men who love her (and her money) while underestimating her intellect, talent, and vision. Along the way, Peggy must balance her loyalty to her family with her need to break free from their narrow, snobbish ways and the unexpected restrictions that come with vast fortune.

Rebecca Godfrey’s final book—completed by her friend, the acclaimed writer Leslie Jamison, following Godfrey’s death in 2022—brings to life the woman who helped make the Guggenheim name synonymous with art and genius.

I never knew

So much I didnt know about her. Wish the author was alive to write volume 2.

Life of Peggy Guggenheim

A wonderful biography of an iconic woman ahead of her time. The art world was full of stories and Peggy Guggenheim surely made more

Excellent story of the life of Peggy Guggenheim.

I enjoyed learning about Peggy’s Guggenheim and her contributions to the literary and art world. The storyline was engrossing and well-researched. I often paused my reading to dig deeper into the writers and artists whose characters were woven into the story. I would most recommend this book to people with an interest in art and literary history in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Really enjoyed this one

The narration is exquisite.

There are some sentences in here worth remembering for a lifetime.

Unfortunate listening experience

Story jumped around — not cohesive. Most of all was the really awful narration. The fake so-called rich elite accent was terrible. I try not to write negative reviews but this was most annoying and a complete waste of time.