The Unfinished Palazzo
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Narrated by:
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Julia Franklin
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By:
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Judith Mackrell
About this listen
Commissioned in 1750, the Palazzo Venier was planned as a testimony to the power and wealth of a great Venetian family, but the fortunes of the Venier family waned, and the project was left abandoned and unfinished. Yet in the early 20th century, it attracted three fascinating women: Luisa Casati, Doris Castlerosse and Peggy Guggenheim. Luisa held parties as extravagant as Renaissance court operas. Doris hosted film stars and royalty at glittering gatherings. And for Peggy, the Palazzo served as a home for her exquisite collection of modern art.
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Story
Effie Gray, a beautiful and intelligent young socialite, rattled the foundations of England's Victorian age. Married at 19 to John Ruskin, the leading art critic of the time, she found herself trapped in a loveless, union after Ruskin rejected her on their wedding night. She met John Everett Millais, Ruskin's protege, and fell passionately in love with him. Suzanne Fagence Cooper has gained exclusive access to Effie's previously unseen letters and diaries to tell the complete story of this scandalous love triangle.
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Fascinating Story--Victoriana
- By Cariola on 06-29-12
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England's Mistress
- The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton
- By: Kate Williams
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Emma Hamilton was England's first superstar. She fought her way out of dire poverty to become a fashion icon, an Ambassador's wife, a confidante of both Marie Antoinette and the Queen of Naples, and the mistress of Lord Nelson, England's greatest military hero.
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Riveting.
- By jojonow on 06-12-08
By: Kate Williams
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The Mistresses of Cliveden
- Three Centuries of Scandal, Power, and Intrigue in an English Stately Home
- By: Natalie Livingstone
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overlooking the Thames, the Cliveden mansion is flanked by two wings and surrounded by lavish gardens. Throughout its storied history, Cliveden has been a setting for misbehavior, intrigue, and passion - from its salacious, deadly beginnings in the 17th century to the 1960s Profumo affair, the sex scandal that toppled the British government. Now, in this immersive chronicle, the manor's current mistress, Natalie Livingstone, opens the doors to this prominent house and lets the walls do the talking.
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disappointed
- By Galina M. on 11-14-16
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Wallis in Love
- The Untold Life of the Duchess of Windsor, the Woman Who Changed the Monarchy
- By: Andrew Morton
- Narrated by: Molly Parker Myers
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of the Netflix series The Crown and from the author of the New York Times best seller 17 Carnations comes a captivating biography of Wallis Simpson, the notorious woman for whom Edward VIII gave up the throne.
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This one is being returned
- By Rita T on 02-15-18
By: Andrew Morton
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The Riviera Set
- Glitz, Glamour, and the Hidden World of High Society
- By: Mary S. Lovell
- Narrated by: Jill Rolls
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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The Riviera Set reveals the story of the group of people who lived, partied, bed-hopped, and politicked at the Château de l'Horizon near Cannes, over the course of 40 years from the time when Coco Chanel made southern French tans fashionable in the twenties to the death of the playboy Prince Aly Khan in 1960. At the heart of dynamic group was the amazing Maxine Elliott, the daughter of a fisherman from Connecticut, who built the beautiful art deco Château.
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Riviera Set
- By Lois Kelly on 05-04-18
By: Mary S. Lovell
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Romantic Outlaws
- The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley
- By: Charlotte Gordon
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 22 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Charlotte Gordon's new work is a fresh look at the lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, who together comprise one of the most illustrious and inspiring mother-daughter pairs in history.
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Tons of info, poor format choice.
- By Gotta Tellya on 02-06-17
By: Charlotte Gordon
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Clementine
- The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill
- By: Sonia Purnell
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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By Winston Churchill's own admission, victory in the Second World War would have been "impossible without her". Until now, however, the only existing biography of Churchill's wife, Clementine, was written by her daughter. Sonia Purnell finally gives Clementine her due with a deeply researched account that tells her life story, revealing how she was instrumental in softening FDR's initial dislike of her husband and paving the way for Britain's close relationship with America.
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Exasperating At Times But Very Good--
- By Gillian on 04-09-18
By: Sonia Purnell
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In Montmartre
- Picasso, Matisse and the Birth of Modernist Art
- By: Sue Roe
- Narrated by: Emma Bering
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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A lively and deeply researched group biography of the figures who transformed the world of art in bohemian Paris in the first decade of the 20th century. In Montmartre is a colorful history of the birth of Modernist art as it arose from one of the most astonishing collections of artistic talent ever assembled. It begins in October 1900, as a teenage Pablo Picasso, eager for fame and fortune, first makes his way up the hillside of Paris’s famous windmill-topped district.
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Florid narrative history with suspect details
- By Keith on 10-30-19
By: Sue Roe
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After the Romanovs
- Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War
- By: Helen Rappaport
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Paris has always been a city of cultural excellence, fine wine and food, and the latest fashions. But it has also been a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution, never more so than before and after the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanov dynasty. For years, Russian aristocrats had enjoyed all that Belle Époque Paris had to offer, spending lavishly when they visited. It was a place of artistic experimentation, such as Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. But the brutality of the Bolshevik takeover forced Russians of all types to flee their homeland.
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Mildly interesting story of Russians exiles
- By Conrad Hastler on 05-20-22
By: Helen Rappaport
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Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter
- A Biography of Princess Louise
- By: Lucinda Hawksley
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The secrets of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain hidden forever. What was so dangerous about this artistic, tempestuous royal that her life has been documented more by rumor and gossip than hard facts? When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view.
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Incredibly Frustrating
- By JayOne on 01-16-20
By: Lucinda Hawksley
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Those Wild Wyndhams
- Three Sisters at the Heart of Power
- By: Claudia Renton
- Narrated by: Claudia Renton
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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They were confidantes to British prime ministers, poets, writers, and artists, their lives entwined with the most celebrated and scandalous figures of the day, from Oscar Wilde to Henry James. They were the lovers of great men - or men of great prominence... They lived in a world of luxurious excess, a world of splendor at 44 Belgrave Square and later at the even more vast Clouds, the exquisite Wiltshire house on 4,000 acres, the "house of the age", designed in 1876 by the visionary architect Philip Webb - the model for Henry James' The Spoils of Poynton.
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SLOW START BUT STICK WITH THIS ONE
- By The Louligan on 01-22-19
By: Claudia Renton
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Heiresses
- The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies
- By: Laura Thompson
- Narrated by: Laura Thompson
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Heiresses: Surely they are among the luckiest women on earth. Are they not to be envied, with their private jets and Chanel wardrobes and endless funds? Yet all too often those gilded lives have been beset with trauma and despair. Before the 20th century a wife’s inheritance was the property of her husband, making her vulnerable to kidnap, forced marriages, even confinement in an asylum. And in modern times, heiresses fell victim to fortune-hunters who squandered their millions.
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tough listen and tough to keep track
- By Amazon Customer on 03-29-23
By: Laura Thompson
What listeners say about The Unfinished Palazzo
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- CK
- 02-10-23
Three fascinating women
This book was a window into the lives of three amazing women --- all trailblazers and free spirits. Loved it. But when the narrator gets to the Peggy Guggenheim part of the book, her versions of American accents are really bad--cringeworthy. It's still worth a listen despite that but brace yourself.
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Overall
- Dan
- 01-09-18
Nostalgia At Its Best
A great read and insight into a bygone era and to three incredible women of that time.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Patricia
- 03-10-24
How many hours were still left when I was done
This was painful to get through. I kept wishing it was over with. Tons of research, clearly. But it read as if I was thumbing through the author's entire collection of 3x5 cards. Oh here is a quote, let's jam that in, even though it's just a dopey observation of the weather. It is a chronicle of the events but with nothing added to weave a story or develop a character. Dull dull dull. I only finished it because I thought I was learning some history, but just like in school I've already forgotten every bit of it. Except how selfish and bizarre all these women were. Sorry. I know you put a lot of work into it.
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