The Fortune Hunters: Dazzling Women and the Men They Married

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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 306.872308621091821 EAN: 9780312246464 ISBN: 0312246463 Label: St. Martin's Press Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 256 Publication Date: 2007-08-07 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Release Date: 2007-08-07 Studio: St. Martin's Press
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Editorial Reviews: From Madame de Pompadour, the famed mistress of Louis XV, to Pamela Harriman, who married into the English aristocracy and the American plutocracy, there is a rich history of women who have found glamour and wealth in the arms of a billionaire. But contrary to what you may think, fortune hunting is no idle pursuit. Like diving for treasure, it’s a real job. Some women strive to be CEOs; others prefer to wed them. You'll meet today's dazzling successes in this book. What kind of woman does it take to make the Midas marriage? Exploring the lives of the great fortune hunters of our day, reporter and former gossip columnist Charlotte Hays answers this tantalizing question. You’ll learn about the South Carolina woman who took a trip around the world with a shadowy shipping magnate, only to meet and marry a philandering marquis. You’ll see what methods these women use to lure their powerful men, including one playful fortune seeker who, at a very high-society soirée, hurled a piece of bread at her intended beau, starting a food fight. You’ll meet the New York socialite who remarried so quickly after a divorce, her ex claimed she was a bigamist. What are their recipes for riches? Can a genuinely nice woman pursue this career? What does love have to do with it? With original interviews and photos, Hays casts a light on the determination, skill, and---yes, sometimes---ruthlessness that have shaped some of the most successful---and lucrative---unions of our time.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: why did i read this? Comment: the title is a kinder, glossier euphemism for 'the gold diggers' of course. it basically gives a little biographical backstory to the great gold diggers of our age, yawn, and the message remains the same - women who marry for money end up earning every penny, just not on a 9-5 basis and perhaps not standing upright... a travesty of feminism. Customer Rating: Summary: If West Point offered an 'MRS' degree this book would be required reading for the course on fortune hunting strategy. Comment: The Fortune Hunters has the unique qualaity of being both entertaining AND informative. If 'all is fair in love and war' then this book illustrates the strategies and characteristics of the greatest conquerors of the battle of the sexes. You learn how each of the 'generals' won the skirmishes, battles, and wars that made them famous while also learning the motivations that drove them into battle. Each of the women profiled could command a 400 page biography of their own but this book isn't about detailing their ENTIRE lives but, rather,their LOVE lives. Though these women are all one-of-a-kind personalities they share a specific cocktail of traits that makes for successful big-game hunting. Whether it is Wallis Simpson or Marla Maples Ms. Hays confirms that you can get more money during a 5 minute wedding ceremony than you could get from a lifetimes hard work. The text is witty and easy to read while the boil-plate approach to the fortune-huntress tactics provides high nutritional value. I have seen many 'fortune huntresses'(South Florida boasts a large population of 'old men with even older money') toiling away at their craft with dissapointing results but now that Ms. Hays has written this primer on marrying money their fortunes might just change for the better. I read this book the first night - couldn't put it down. Customer Rating: Summary: Should have been better Comment: Very simply, THE FORTUNE HUNTERS should have been better. Author Charlotte Hays, presumably in concert with her editor and publisher, has cheated her readers. Most importantly, the book simply is too short. At less than 300 pages, it should have been at least 50% longer. Had it been longer, it might have included sufficient examples of fortune hunters -- and examples abound -- to do justice to the theme. The writing has a rushed quality, with some sentences so run-on that they could have been broken up into full paragraphs. Author Hays draws some conclusions that are just plain wrong. Diana, the late Princess of Wales, was not a fortune hunter. Coming from an old noble family, a rich family, she was a misguided teenager who thought that she was marrying her Prince Charming -- and who, at the same time, assumed that when he became king, she would be queen. Neither was socialite Nan Kempner a fortune hunter, though Hays opens AND closes the book with the EXACT SAME anecdote about her. Kempner married young and stayed married for about 50 years, to a boy of her own social class. The author is confusing making a "suitable" marriage with hunting for a rich husband. At the same time, the author never even mentions Princess Grace of Monaco. Admittedly, Grace was not a fortune hunter, being a member of a rich family and having made serious money on her own as a movie star. Yet she did marry a virtual stranger in her quest to become royal. As for those fortune hunters the author does include in her book, she omits most of the more compelling anecdotes about them. Anyone who was in New York during some of these ladies' heydays will find it difficult to understand how Hays could neglect to reference the details of the notorious party which caused the Steinbergs to retire from polite society, or how she could give only one example of Mrs. Gutfreund's hilarious social gaffes. As the expression goes, the omissions also are glaring. Pat Kluge is cited only in a single aside. The marriages of Mort Zuckerman and Henry Kravis and all of the later Mrs. Perelmans are not mentioned at all, nor is Brooke Astor. Denise Minelli Hale was so laser-focused on the man that she succeeded in wedding that her step-daughter wrote an entire book about their marriage; shouldn't Hays have included the last Mrs. Hale in her summation? THE FORTUNE HUNTERS is fascinating in concept, but the book is so short and so sloppy that it cheats its readers. Customer Rating: Summary: Not expected Comment: Did expect more of this book. The subject sure has enough substance... However, it is neither a gossip book nor a social anthropological study but a mish-mash of tidbits of information, some seems to come from a relatively close proximity other from far, far away from the objects studied. Not a book that really grabs you. Customer Rating: Summary: Well-written, well-researched, juicy read Comment: This book is a wonderful backgrounder on what a fortune hunter is truly made of. I'm surrounded by them--we all are, no matter which social class we live in. But this book is a fantastic backgrounder on how all of these women think and behave. Hays is not cutting or cruel about these women; she simply tells their stories. And the stories are really something. Interesting, though: The fortune hunters of yesteryear are cut from exactly the same cloth as those we hear and see so much about today. A fun read. More Reviews