‘A dazzling achievement, heartbreaking, glamourous, elegiac, revelatory and utterly gripping’ Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World: A Family History of Humanity

‘Truly beautiful and melodic . . . a joy to read’ Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five and Story of a Murder

‘Thrilling . . . essential reading for our times’ The Times, Book of the Week
 

An astonishing true story of splendour, scandal and tragedy in Golden Age Paris.

In 1881, Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted two young sisters from a Jewish banking dynasty at their home in Paris’s grand 8th arrondissement. Pink and Blue, a portrait of Elisabeth and Alice Cahen d’Anvers, captures a fleeting moment of innocence and beauty, and today it is one of Renoir’s most celebrated works. His portrait evokes the glamour of the Belle Époque: days at the races, nights at the opera, sun-soaked chateaux, brilliant salons filled with art, music and conversation. Paris at its most dazzling.

Yet beneath the glittering surface was a surging current of resentment. Renoir’s Impressionist masterpiece, radiant with light and colour, hides both a family secret and the tensions of an era poised for rupture. The same society that was illuminated by progress and culture was cast into shadow by division, prejudice and rising antisemitism. The Cahen d’Anvers, prominent patrons of this Golden Age, would come to embody both its glory and its tragedy.

In The Renoir Girls, Catherine Ostler paints a vivid and immersive portrait of intimate individual lives against the vast sweep of a changing Europe. Drawing on letters, diaries and exclusive new research, Ostler uncovers revelatory truths about a family at the heart of modern Europe’s struggles. From the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War to the Dreyfus Affair and the devastation of two world wars, this is a powerful story of love, courage and identity in conflict with the forces of history.

When the glamorous  Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, Countess of Bristol, went on trial at Westminster Hall for  bigamy  in April 1776, the story drew more attention in society than the  American War of Independence.

A  clandestine, candlelit wedding  to the young heir to an earldom, a second marriage to a Duke, a lust for diamonds and an electrifying appearance at a masquerade ball in a diaphanous dress: no wonder the trial was a sensation. However, Elizabeth refused to submit to public humiliation and retire quietly. Rather than backing gracefully out of the limelight, she embarked on a  Grand Tour  of Europe,  being welcomed by the  Pope and  Catherine the Great  among others.

As maid of honour to Augusta, Princess of Wales, Elizabeth led her life in the inner circle of the Hanoverian court and her exploits delighted and scandalised the press and the people. She made headlines, and was a constant feature in penny prints and gossip columns.  Writers were intrigued by her. Thackeray drew on Elizabeth as inspiration for his calculating, alluring Becky Sharp. But her behaviour, often depicted as attention-seeking and manipulative, hid a more complex tale – that of Elizabeth’s fight to  overcome personal tragedy and loss.

Now, in this  brilliantly told and evocative biography, Catherine Ostler takes a fresh look at Elizabeth’s story and seeks to understand and reappraise a woman who refused to be defined by society’s expectations of her. A woman who was by turns, brave, loving and generous but also reckless, greedy and insecure; a woman totally unwilling to accept the female status of underdog or to hand over all the power, the glory and the adventures of life to men.

‘A scintillating story superbly told… [Ostler] packs every paragraph with eye-opening detail’ Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Times
‘A rollicking read… [Ostler] tells Elizabeth’s story with admirable style and gusto’ Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
‘Fascinating. Magnificent.?  Sensitively told’  Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five and The Covent Garden Ladies
‘Catherine Ostler’s superb, gripping, decadent biography brings an  extraordinary woman and a  whole world blazingly to life’  Simon Sebag Montefiore,  author of  Catherine the Great and Potemkin
A Vogue Best Book of 2021

When the glamorous  Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, Countess of Bristol, went on trial at Westminster Hall for  bigamy  in April 1776, the story drew more attention in society than the  American War of Independence.

A  clandestine, candlelit wedding  to the young heir to an earldom, a second marriage to a Duke, a lust for diamonds and an electrifying appearance at a masquerade ball in a diaphanous dress: no wonder the trial was a sensation. However, Elizabeth refused to submit to public humiliation and retire quietly. Rather than backing gracefully out of the limelight, she embarked on a  Grand Tour  of Europe,  being welcomed by the  Pope and  Catherine the Great  among others.

As maid of honour to Augusta, Princess of Wales, Elizabeth led her life in the inner circle of the Hanoverian court and her exploits delighted and scandalised the press and the people. She made headlines, and was a constant feature in penny prints and gossip columns.  Writers were intrigued by her. Thackeray drew on Elizabeth as inspiration for his calculating, alluring Becky Sharp. But her behaviour, often depicted as attention-seeking and manipulative, hid a more complex tale – that of Elizabeth’s fight to  overcome personal tragedy and loss.

Now, in this  brilliantly told and evocative biography, Catherine Ostler takes a fresh look at Elizabeth’s story and seeks to understand and reappraise a woman who refused to be defined by society’s expectations of her. A woman who was by turns, brave, loving and generous but also reckless, greedy and insecure; a woman totally unwilling to accept the female status of underdog or to hand over all the power, the glory and the adventures of life to men.