Synopses & Reviews
The author of the bestseller
White Mischief tells the story of the beautiful Langhorne sisters, who lived at the Pinnacle of high and powerful society from the end of the Civil War through the Second World War. Making their way across two continents, they left in their wakes rich husbands, fame, adoration, and scandal.
Lizzie, Irene, Nancy, Phyllis, and Nora were born in Virginia to a family impoverished by the Civil War. Their father remade his fortune by collaborating with the Yankees and building rail-roads; the sisters became southern belles and northern debutantes. James Fox draws on unpublished correspondence between the sisters and their husbands, lovers, children, and the powerful and glamorous of their day to construct a plural topography with the scope of a grand novel and the pace of a historical thriller.
At its center is the most famous sister, Nancy, who married Waldorf Astor, one of the richest men in the world. Heroic, hilarious, magnetically charming, and a bully, Lady Astor became Britain's first female MP, championing women's rights and the poor. The beautiful Irene married Charles Dana Gibson and was the model for the Gibson Girl. The author's grandmother, Phyllis, married a famous economist, one of the architects of modern Europe.
Fox has written an absorbing and spirited, intimate and sweeping account of extraordinary women at the highest reaches of society, their adventures set against the background of a tumultuous century.
Review
John Richardson
The most fascinating chronicle of American high life I have ever read. James Fox deftly steers us from Margaret Mitchell country, via Henry James's New York and London, to a wonderful Evelyn Waugh-ish finale that is sad and grand and raffish.
Review
Gloria Vanderbilt
James Fox draws us intimately into a domain of wealth, glamour, politics, and tragedy. One is bedazzled and repelled and ultimately bewitched by the relentless narcissism, selfishness, and cruelty of the amazing Langhorne sisters. A mesmerizing book.
Review
Dominick Dunne
Oh, how I loved taking my time reading James Fox's book Five Sisters, absorbing the sort of dazzling details of privilege and class that made his White Mischief so utterly perfect. The Langhorne sisters fascinated their contemporaries on two continents. Now one of the sisters' grandsons has written their tales and shown us their worlds with enormous style.
Review
London
Observer[Five Sisters] is not just a study of a family, or of an age, it is a living, breathing re-creation of a singular way of life....Fox has done more than create a monument to his family -- he has captured a fading impression and made it glow. The Langhornes are alive again.
Review
London
IndependentCompare the plots of Gone with the Wind and The Remains of the Day, add a dash of Henry James and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and you come close to the remarkable mix of family history, political intrigue, and high society hauteur that is James Fox's [Five Sisters].
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
About the Author
James Fox was born in Washington, D.C., in 1945. He worked as a journalist in Africa, and later at the
Sunday Times in London. He is the author of the bestselling
White Mischief. Table of Contents
Contents The Cast of Characters
The Langhorne Family Tree
1 The Langhornes
2 Mr. Langhorne's Rock
3 Mrs. Langhorne's Violet Lunch
4 Mr. Shaw and Mr. Brooks
5 Going Back in the Boats
6 Nancy and the Astors
7 Nancy the Good
8 Conquering Society
9 The Marriage of Nora
10 The Returning Pilgrim
11 Phyllis and the Captain
12 Bright Young Men
13 Fly Sickness
14 Outbreak of War
15 Trenches
16 Dear Mr. Brand
17 The Men in the Room
18 Writing from School
19 The Right Honourable Nancy Astor, MP
20 Nancy the Ringmaster
21 The Boy Problem
22 Nora's Garden of Roses
23 Winkie and the Jazz Age
24 Nancy to Moscow, Bobbie to Jail
25 Papa Wants a Little Gun
26 Scott Fitzgerald's Intimate Strangers
27 A Shovel in the Post
28 Alone in the Universe
29 Cockburn's "Cliveden Set"
30 Fort Augustus
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index