Synopses & Reviews
Born Betsy Bowen into grinding poverty, the woman who became Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail. Yet by the end of her life, “Madame Jumel” was one of America’s richest women, with servants of her own, a New York mansion and Saratoga Springs summer home, a major art collection, and several hundred acres of land. During her remarkable rise, she acquired a fortune from her first husband—a French merchant—and almost lost it to her second—notorious vice president Aaron Burr. Divorcing Burr amid lurid charges of adultery, Jumel lived on to the age of 90, astutely managing her property and public persona. After her death, a titanic battle over her estate went all the way to the United States Supreme Court—twice. Family members told of a woman who earned the gratitude of Napoleon I and shone at the courts of Louis XVIII and Charles X. Claimants to her estate painted a different picture: of a prostitute, the mother of George Washington’s illegitimate son, a wife who defrauded her husband and perhaps even plotted his death. Eliza Jumel’s real story—so unique that it surpasses any invention—has yet to be told, until now.
Review
“Before Horatio Alger, there was Eliza Jumel. Her story has long been mired in mystery, scandal, innuendo, and outright fabrication. No more. Margaret Oppenheimer’s deeply researched, trans-Atlantic biography moves Eliza Jumel from the shadowy margins to the central events of turn-of-the-nineteenth-century France and the United States. The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel is just that—a remarkable work of history.” —Timothy J. Gilfoyle, professor of history, Loyola University Chicago, associate editor,
Journal of Urban HistoryReview
“An engaging and thoroughly researched account of the spectacular rags-to-riches rise of Eliza Jumel.” —Meryl Gordon, author of
Mrs. Astor Regrets and
The Phantom of Fifth AvenueReview
“A true story that needs no invention,
The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel is a vivid narrative of the sacrifices that a woman makes as she acquires and holds onto a fortune in early America.” —Bill Dedman, coauthor of the New York Times bestselling
Empty MansionsSynopsis
Born Betsy Bowen into grinding poverty, the woman who reinvented herself as Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail. Seizing opportunities and readjusting facts to achieve the security and status she so desperately craved, she obtained a fortune from her first husband, a French merchant, and nearly lost it to her second, the notorious vice president Aaron Burr. Divorcing Burr promptly amid lurid charges of adultery, she lived on triumphantly to the age of ninety, astutely managing her property and public persona.
By the end of her life, "Madame Jumel" was one of New York's richest women, with servants of her own, an art collection, an elegant mansion, a summer home in Saratoga Springs, and several hundred acres of land. After her death, a titanic battle over her estate went all the way to the United States Supreme Court . . . twice.
As the feud over her fortune riveted the nation, family members told of a woman who earned the gratitude of Napoleon I and shone at the courts of Louis XVIII and Charles X. Their opponents painted a different picture, of a prostitute who bore George Washington's illegitimate son, a wife who defrauded her husband and perhaps even plotted his death. Now Eliza Jumel's real story--so unique that it surpasses any invention--has finally been told.
About the Author
Margaret A. Oppenheimer holds a PhD in art history from New York University. A writer, copy editor, and docent at New York’s Morris-Jumel Mansion, she is the author of The French Portrait: Revolution to Restoration. Her articles on French art have appeared in Apollo, the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, the Metropolitan Museum Journal, and other publications. She lives in New York City.