An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew
Written by Annejet van der Zijl
Narrated by Teri Schnaubelt
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
A Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestseller.
Two-time Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel names An American Princess as one of her favorite books of the year: “light and gracefully written, it dances through a century of history…” (The Guardian)
Born to a pioneering family in Upstate New York in the late 1800s, Allene Tew was beautiful, impetuous, and frustrated by the confines of her small hometown. At eighteen, she met Tod Hostetter at a local dance, having no idea that the mercurial charmer she would impulsively wed was heir to one of the wealthiest families in America. But when he died twelve years later, Allene packed her bags for New York City. Never once did she look back.
From the vantage point of the American upper class, Allene embodied the tumultuous Gilded Age. Over the course of four more marriages, she weathered personal tragedies during World War I and the catastrophic financial reversals of the crash of 1929. From the castles and châteaus of Europe, she witnessed the Russian Revolution and became a princess. And from the hopes of a young girl from Jamestown, New York, Allene Tew would become the epitome of both a pursuer and survivor of the American Dream.
Annejet van der Zijl
Annejet van der Zijl is one of the best-known and most widely read literary nonfiction writers in the Netherlands. She has written biographies of Dutch children’s author Annie M. G. Schmidt; Prince Bernhard, the husband of former Dutch queen Juliana; and Gerard Heineken, founder of the famous beer empire; as well as other works. Her nonfiction has been awarded the M. J. Brusse Prize for the best work of journalism and has been nominated for the Golden Owl and the AKO Literary Prize. An American Princess spent more than fifteen weeks at the top of the national bestseller list in the Netherlands and was short-listed for the Libris History Prize. In 2012, she was awarded the Golden Quill for her entire oeuvre.
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Reviews for An American Princess
36 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The characters were many & very well developed. The tale was a great story, but also an accurate account of history as it happened around the life of Alena. I loved it
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Accurately it is more of a 3.5 stars but rounded up to 4.
When i first got this book i thought it would a biography of the lovely American princess told from her point of view, however i was let down as this book is more properly described as a historical retelling of the people that surrounded her as well as the time period that she lived in.
There was little information regarding her story except from the what the author found out about her and her collection of letters.
Still it was a good short read and i would recommend it if you are interested in such settings. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent. This books reads like a real adventure. It left me wishing I could meet in ms Tew. An extraordinary woman presented in a moving way. Great read
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I was crazy about this book wonderful educational interesting mesmerizing