{"title":"Greg King","description":"GREG KING is the author of the British bestseller The Duchess of Windsor: The Uncommon Life of Wallis Simpson as well as The Court of the Last Tsar, The Fate of the Romanovs,  and Twilight of Splendor. He has appeared as an onscreen commentator for the BBC, the Discovery Channel, and A\u0026amp;E.","products":[{"product_id":"a-season-of-splendor-the-court-of-mrs-astor-in-gilded-age-new-york-hardcover","title":"A Season of Splendor: The Court of Mrs. Astor in Gilded Age New York - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Season of Splendor\u003c\/em\u003e takes you on a spectacular journey through this Gilded Age, the period from roughly the 1870s to 1914, when old-money bluebloods and patricians confronted the nouveau riche-railway barons, steel magnates, and Wall Street speculators--and forged an uneasy and dazzling new social order in New York City. Author Greg King places you in the heart of this glittering era, where you'll discover all that was beguiling and appalling about this altogether extraordinary epoch.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn January 1900, Caroline Astor greeted the new century with her annual Opera Ball. Dressed in a black velvet gown, she was draped with diamond necklaces and brooches and wore her famous diamond tiara--the jewels alone worth over $2.3 million in today's dollars. Her guests danced all night in her palatial ballroom, stopping only for a ten-course supper that included consomme, supr?eme de volaille, filet de boeuf, terrapin, duck croquettes, pa?te de foie gras, salade Orientale, and bonbons.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSmall in stature, but as determined as ever to maintain the rigid social structure she established decades earlier, Mrs. Astor was every inch an American queen surveying her subjects: families whose wealth and power dominated New York City society for nearly forty years. Just fourteen years later it all came to a crashing end, first with the sinking of the Titanic and then the start of World War I. Caroline Astor would not live to see it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Season of Splendor takes you on a spectacular journey through this Gilded Age, the period from roughly the 1870s to 1914, when old-money bluebloods and patricians confronted the nouveau riche--railway barons, steel magnates, and Wall Street speculators--and forged an uneasy and dazzling new social order in New York City. Together, their extreme wealth, elaborate parties, marble mansions, shocking excesses, and delicious scandals transformed the social, architectural, and sartorial landscape. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor Greg King places you in the heart of this glittering era. You'll meet the rich and famous--Astors, Vanderbilts, Belmonts, Goulds, and others--and tour sumptuous estates furnished with marble and silk and filled with antiques, tapestries, and European art. You'll sit at the table of lavish dinner parties that start with two soup courses (consomme and bisque) and include up to twelve more courses, plus sherry, wine, champagne, and liqueurs. You'll attend society balls, go yachting in Newport, buy dresses in Paris--and for everything, the more extravagant, the better.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Money was poured out like water,\" one society lady recalled. \"No one thought of the cost.\" But by the time parties began to include cigarettes rolled in hundred dollar bills, each stamped with the guest's initials in gold, or live elephants wandering from room to room in mansions to amuse the guests, even Caroline Astor was disillusioned by the excess. The Gilded Age--so named by Mark Twain to capture the essence of its avarice--was beginning to disintegrate from within. In A Season of Splendor, you'll discover all that was beguiling and appalling about this altogether extraordinary epoch.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51365988729055,"sku":"9780470185698","price":47.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/J0N_bMlLsF9780470185698.webp?v=1789077177"},{"product_id":"twilight-of-splendor-the-court-of-queen-victoria-during-her-diamond-jubilee-year-hardcover","title":"Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria During Her Diamond Jubilee Year - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePower, pageantry, and pride\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eQueen Victoria ruled the most powerful empire the world has ever seen, covering one fourth of the earth's land surface, reigning over subjects on every continent, and exercising undisputed mastery of the oceans in between. She was the \"Grandmother of Europe,\" with descendants occupying the thrones of half a dozen nations, and more to come. The very era in which she lived already bore her name. In June 1897, her proud and prosperous nation marked her sixtieth year on the throne of England with the most lavish display of pomp, circumstance, wealth, and affection in its history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwilight of Splendor\u003c\/em\u003e presents a breathtaking portrait of a sovereign and her empire at the height of their global power. Focusing on the spectacle of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, it combines a thrilling account of that massive celebration with an intimate exploration of Victoria's world-her splendid palaces and possessions, the grand banquets and balls she hosted, her immense wealth, the politicians and courtiers who did her bidding, her confidence and assertiveness as a ruler, her surprising personal humility, and her perpetual state of mourning for her beloved husband, Prince Albert.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on hundreds of published and unpublished sources from the period, including Queen Victoria's private correspondence and personal journals, \u003cem\u003eTwilight of Splendor\u003c\/em\u003e is must reading for Anglophiles, Victorian-history buffs, and anyone interested in the golden age of monarchy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe first book to portray the queen and her court in the last years of her reign\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eContrasts the queen's private and public images in her efforts to solidify the monarchy\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eExposes the queen's difficult relations with her children\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eExplores the queen's relationship with her extended European royal relatives\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDraws together for the first time hundreds of disparate sources\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIncludes a number of rare photographs complementing the text\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eQueen Victoria wore a somber gown of black silk, enlivened with delicate embroidery of sparkling jet and offset by layers of contrasting white lace. On her gray head a veil of Honiton lace, carefully arranged in cascades to frame her wrinkled face and sagging shoulders, was held in place by a small crown of 1,300 diamonds. The faint hint of her favorite orange-scented perfume hovered in the air as her lady in waiting adorned her widow's weeds with the blue silk moire sash and diamond star of the Order of the Garter; large diamond drop earrings and a matching collet necklace of twenty-eight immense, gleaming stones; and a diamond-fringe brooch. Her pudgy wrists and fingers glistened with gold and diamond bracelets and an array of precious rings. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the eve of her Diamond Jubilee in 1897, the tiny, rotund, seventy-eight-year-old queen was a study in contrasts. And, much like the immense realm that was her domain, she was at the pinnacle of her authority and nearing the end of her days. Twilight of Splendor leads you on an extravagant tour into the heart of history's last and greatest royal empire: the court of Victoria Regina et Imperatrix--Queen of England and Empress of India. You'll meet the people, witness the pageantry, and feel the power that circled the globe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor Greg King takes you exploring through the queen's elegant residences at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, cruising the English Channel aboard the royal yacht Victoria and Albert II, and tramping the Scottish highlands at her beloved retreat, Balmoral. You'll also attend the spectacular ceremony in honor of Victoria's sixtieth year on the throne and marvel at the Empire's splendid diversity, as represented by her parading armies--scarlet-coated Canadians and turbaned Sikhs, Egyptians in red fezzes, khaki-clad Australians, and galloping Bengal Lancers, their deadly pikes glittering in the sun like the queen's own jewels.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost compelling of all is Victoria herself. Groomed from infancy to assume the crown and adhere to a strict moral code, she was a proud, forceful, and imperious sovereign who remained personally humble, good-humored, and keenly intelligent. King reveals that Victoria's dislike of the British nobility led her to market herself quite purposefully to the middle class, even as she suppressed news of scandals involving her children and embarked on enigmatic relationships with the notorious John Brown and her personal servant Abdul Karim.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eQueen Victoria wore a somber gown of black silk, enlivened with delicate embroidery of sparkling jet and offset by layers of contrasting white lace. On her gray head a veil of Honiton lace, carefully arranged in cascades to frame her wrinkled face and sagging shoulders, was held in place by a small crown of 1,300 diamonds. The faint hint of her favorite orange-scented perfume hovered in the air as her lady in waiting adorned her widow's weeds with the blue silk moir? sash and diamond star of the Order of the Garter; large diamond drop earrings and a matching collet necklace of twenty-eight immense, gleaming stones; and a diamond-fringe brooch. Her pudgy wrists and fingers glistened with gold and diamond bracelets and an array of precious rings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOn the eve of her Diamond Jubilee in 1897, the tiny, rotund, seventy-eight-year-old queen was a study in contrasts. And, much like the immense realm that was her domain, she was at the pinnacle of her authority and nearing the end of her days. \u003ci\u003eTwilight of Splendor\u003c\/i\u003e leads you on an extravagant tour into the heart of history's last and greatest royal empire: the court of Victoria Regina et Imperatrix--Queen of England and Empress of India. You'll meet the people, witness the pageantry, and feel the power that circled the globe.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAuthor Greg King takes you exploring through the queen's elegant residences at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, cruising the English Channel aboard the royal yacht \u003ci\u003eVictoria and Albert II, \u003c\/i\u003e and tramping the Scottish highlands at her beloved retreat, Balmoral. You'll also attend the spectacular ceremony in honor of Victoria's sixtieth year on the throne and marvel at the Empire's splendid diversity, as represented by her parading armies--scarlet-coated Canadians and turbaned Sikhs, Egyptians in red fezzes, khaki-clad Australians, and galloping Bengal Lancers, their deadly pikes glittering in the sun like the queen's own jewels.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMost compelling of all is Victoria herself. Groomed from infancy to assume the crown and adhere to a strict moral code, she was a proud, forceful, and imperious sovereign who remained personally humble, good-humored, and keenly intelligent. King reveals that Victoria's dislike of the British nobility led her to market herself quite purposefully to the middle class, even as she suppressed news of scandals involving her children and embarked on enigmatic relationships with the notorious John Brown and her personal servant Abdul Karim.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51366005440735,"sku":"9780470044391","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/YpplgSXid49780470044391.webp?v=1789077274"},{"product_id":"a-season-of-splendor-the-court-of-mrs-astor-in-gilded-age-new-york-paperback","title":"A Season of Splendor: The Court of Mrs. Astor in Gilded Age New York - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJourney through the splendor and the excesses of the Gilded Age\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Every aspect of life in the Gilded Age took on deeper, transcendent meaning intended to prove the greatness of America: residences beautified their surroundings; works of art uplifted and were shared with the public; clothing exhibited evidence of breeding; jewelry testified to cultured taste and wealth; dinners demonstrated sophisticated palates; and balls rivaled those of European courts in their refinement. The message was unmistakable: the United States had arrived culturally, and Caroline Astor and her circle were intent on leading the nation to unimagined heights of glory.\"\u003cbr\u003e--From \u003cem\u003eA Season of Splendor\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTake a dazzling journey through the Gilded Age, the period from roughly the 1870s to 1914, when bluebloods from older, established families met the nouveau riche headlong--railway barons, steel magnates, and Wall Street speculators--and forged an uneasy and glittering new society in New York City. The best of the best were Caroline Astor's 400 families, and she shaped and ruled this high society with steel.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Season of Splendor\u003c\/em\u003e is a panoramic sweep across this sumptuous landscape, presenting the families, the wealth, the balls, the clothing, and the mansions in vivid detail--as well as the shocking end of the era with the sinking of the Titanic.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51367553990879,"sku":"9781681620534","price":32.38,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/cmqh84ftWh9781681620534.webp?v=1789109803"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/greg-king.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}