La principessa d'argento: La saga dei Guggenheim

by Rebecca Godfrey, Leslie Jamison, Roberta Scarabelli (Translator)

«Personaggi avventurosi e ribelli in una narrazione che si sposta in modo affascinante da New York a Londra e Parigi, tra amici e amanti famosi.»
The Guardian

«Rebecca Godfrey racconta la storia meno nota e in fondo universale con una prosa sicura e limpida.»
La Lettura, Corriere della Sera - Antonella Lattanzi

«Una lettura interessante che riporta alla giusta e dovuta luce la storia di una donna che ha plasmato il patrimonio culturale del Novecento.»
Robinson, la Repubblica - Felicia Kingsley

1908. Una fotografia. Tre sorelle vestite di bianco sorridono innocenti all’obiettivo. Sono il simbolo di un sogno infranto. Il sogno di un erede maschio. Perché le bambine sono le figlie di Benjamin Guggenheim, uno degli uomini più ricchi del mondo. Tra loro c’è Peggy, che nella foto si distingue per lo sguardo deciso. Peggy cresce con una ogni donna ha il dovere di fare qualcosa di straordinario nella propria vita. Quando il padre muore nel naufragio del Titanic, le sorelle si ritrovano in mano una fortuna enorme, ma anche una pesante eredità. Peggy sente il vincolo delle aspettative della famiglia, di una strada già tracciata per lei, ma che non le appartiene. Ha voglia di azzardare. Ha bisogno di una vita che sia veramente sua. Lascia Manhattan e parte per Parigi. In Francia la accoglie un mondo nuovo, fatto di arte e bellezza. La sua vita si intreccia con quella di artisti destinati a rivoluzionare la Jackson Pollock, che Peggy sarà la prima a capire e sostenere; Man Ray, di cui diventa la musa ispiratrice. Parigi la trasforma, la fa sentire libera. La sua passione per l’arte diventa un fuoco che la spinge sempre più lontano. Ma ci sono famiglie da cui è difficile scappare. Anche mentre viaggia per il mondo, cercando la bellezza e l’indipendenza, il peso del suo cognome la segue ovunque. Un peso che si fa insostenibile quando un evento sconvolgente travolge la sorella Hazel, protagonista di uno scandalo indicibile e doloroso. Eppure, a volte, è proprio dalla sofferenza che nascono le più grandi rivoluzioni. 

La principessa d’argento è in via di pubblicazione in tutto il mondo ed è già stato acclamato dalla critica internazionale. Rebecca Godfrey ha trovato una voce capace di restituire non solo la complessità di un personaggio immenso come Peggy Guggenheim, ma anche l’intensità del Novecento. La sua scrittura, lirica e coinvolgente, rende questa saga familiare epica, indimenticabile e unica nel suo genere. 

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Art, Audiobook, Historical, Book Club, Literary Fiction

354 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 13, 2024

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivating Story
We have all heard the name Guggenheim before. What do you really know of the second daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim and Florette Seligman?
I knew little about her. That is why I love to read historical fiction. So much to learn in an enjoyable book.
Peggy Guggenheim wanted to be her own self. Her world was turned upside down when her father a passenger on the Titanic was among the dead. She was only fourteen years of age. She decided she needed to live her life to the fullest.
Tragedy came again when Peggy’s sister died during childbirth.
This was a beautifully written book by Rebecca Godfrey. It took tens years to write most of the book. Unfortunately Rebecca diagnosed with cancer and died before her book was published. She left notes and research for her friend Leslie Jamison to complete the story.
The book encompasses Peggy as her life takes her to Paris, London and Venice.
She has a troubled marriage and is abused by her husband. We meet many famous people on this journey including James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.
This is a captivating story of Peggy’s accomplishments in the art world.
Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for giving me this opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of this book.

[Stacey B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice read.
Visiting the museums named after her told some of her story. All the pieces werent put together for me This is where the book "Peggy" comes in, as the author does the timeline for me which I was so appreciative of.
Both her parents were wealthy in their own right, and I had forgotten her father died on the Titanic. Hence, her trust kicked in at that point.
"Peggy" donated her entire collection to the Solomon Foundation.
I was so fortunate to visit the Biennale in Venice before it closes for two years. At that time I went to her museum which was her own palazzo. A very special place and stunning grounds. In Abu Dhabi, I saw the Guggenheim Museum being built; opening
in 2025, and it said to be the largest Guggenheim Museum in the world.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I could see the start of a new world coming into focus, strange as our dreams and answering to no one...I didn’t make that world. But I helped it survive.”

Peggy Guggenheim’s life was composed of the stuff that novels are made of. Say the name Guggenheim, and the first thing that comes to mind is philanthropy. The second would be art. That’s directly a result of Peggy Guggenheim, one of the most significant art patrons of the 1930s and 40s, particularly Abstract Expressionistic artists.

The daughter of two dynasties, with more money than anyone in New York City (second only to the Rockefellers), Peggy was taught early on that the worst thing was to be noticed – particularly with her Jewish background. She might have been viewed as nothing more than a dilettante or, perhaps, a bohemian.

But Peggy Guggenheim was much more than that. Rebecca Godfrey, who sadly passed away two years ago, did a lot of research to masterfully reimagine the life of this iconic woman who mingled with the famous and experienced life and love with full gusto (including a passionate affair with Samuel Beckett). Ultimately, she ended up helping Jewish artists escape the hellhole that had become Europe while saving priceless artwork from the Nazis. Throughout, she embraces the philosophy that it’s suicide to be sentimental and forges forward where others might retreat.

The vast bulk of this book is Rebecca’s voice and her materials. Yet as her own ending came closer, she engaged her friend Leslie Jamison to complete the book (mainly Part III) in a posthumous collaboration. The writing style shifts a bit, but mostly, the collaboration works.

I am pleased to be an early reader, and gratefully thank Random House for the opportunity. My review reflects my honest views.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have skirted Peggy Guggenheim’s life in my reading, but essentially knew little about her. Peggy is a wonderful novel told in Peggy’s voice, a mesmerizing read that felt completely reliable.

Peggy’s family brought her great wealth, but she rejected their capitalistic values that exploited the working class. She forged a path far from the life her mother expected her to follow.

Peggy’s life was filled with loss, from her father’s fatal trip on the Titanic to her beloved sister’s death in childbirth. She fell in love with the wrong type of men. She struggled to find her voice and purpose, attracted to outsider art of the 20s and 30s.

The novel follows her story and culminates in her conception of the art museum that would change the association of the name Guggenheim from children dying in coal mines to the art that Peggy found spoke to her.

I was delighted with the novel. And sad to learn of the author’s passing before its publication.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve lost count but I believe I’ve read four biographies of Peggy Guggenheim. And I’m here to tell you that as someone who has read four biographies of Peggy Guggenheim, you absolutely do not need to read four biographies of Peggy Guggenheim. Pick one, and after that read this lovely fictional biography instead, which is rooted in the truth of Peggy’s incredible life but reads like purely enjoyable fiction.

That the author passed away before the book could be completed is heartbreaking, but her co-author did a wonderful job of completing the work, and both deserve credit for a job well done.

Peggy, a true character in real life, makes an excellent fictional character because there’s just so little that had to be invented. The authors took the facts of her life and rounded it out by fleshing out the details and creating dialogue to accompany it, and it feels like both novel and nonfiction at the same time.

It’s hard to write a fictionalized biography without either lionizing or demonizing the central figure in it to create drama, or being so beholden to the facts that it’s essentially just nonfiction with bit of invented dialogue thrown in. This book does a wonderful job of demonstrating that when done right it doesn’t have to suffer from either of those things.

I think this will work for both readers very familiar with Peggy and her life as well as for those who know very little about her. In all, a lovely, evocative tale that brings Peggy’s vibrant personality and rogue’s heart to life.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book at all, although I did manage to finish it. I thought it was going to be an interesting historical fiction about a famous art collector. Instead, Peggy Guggenheim comes across as a flighty, promiscuous dilettante who let men abuse her. The writing style was all over the place. It’s not worth saying any more than this.

[Wal.li · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Ikone

Peggy Guggenheim lebt mit ihren Eltern in New York. Allerdings gehören diese nicht zu den ganz Reichen. Dann stirbt ihr Vater unerwartet. Zwar erbt Peggy einen Treuhandfond. Über diesen kann sie allerdings erst bei ihrer Volljährigkeit verfügen. Bis dahin versucht sie auf Geheiß ihrer Mutter etwas Ordentliches zu lernen. Manchmal zieht sie auch mit ihren Freundinnen durch die Stadt. Spannend sind die Demonstrationen, bei denen es um das Frauenwahlrecht geht. Spannend, aber es kann auch gefährlich werden. Früh merkt Peggy, dass sie in Bildern manchmal mehr sieht als andere. Die Werke der Künstler berühren sie.

Der Name Peggy Guggenheim ist wohlbekannt. Im Zusammenhang mit Kunst, als Galeristin hat man ihren Namen schon gehört. Schon als junges Mädchen entwickelt Peggy ihre besondere Persönlichkeit. Mit ihren Schwestern ist sie verbunden. Doch der frühe Tod des Vaters bedeutet einen schmerzhaften Einschnitt im Leben der Familie. Peggys Traum ist es, nach Paris zu gehen. Das Paris der 1920er kann nur ungeahnte Möglichkeiten bieten. Künstler, Schriftsteller - Peggy hofft, in diese Kreise zu gelangen. Und so macht sie sich einen Namen.

Auch wahlsituierte Menschen erfahren Leid und Trauer, so muss neben dem Tod ihres Vaters auch den Tod ihrer Lieblingsschwester Benita verwinden. Und doch, dadurch, dass sie finanziell einigermaßen versorgt ist, gibt ihr eine gewisse Sicherheit. Und doch hadert Peggy mit ihrem Äußeren. Das verführt natürlich dazu, sich ein paar Bilder anzuschauen. Wie es manchmal so ist, was einen selbst sehr stört, empfindet ein Fremder als eher unspektakulär. Auch lohnt sich ein Blick in eine Kurzbiographie zu werfen, um ein Gespür für das zu bekommen, was in diesem Roman ausgelassen wurde. Die leider bereits verstorbene Autorin konzentriert sich auf die Jugendjahre und das frühe Erwachsenenleben der Peggy Guggenheim. Eine berührende Zeit der Entwicklung, der Begegnungen und der großen Gefühle. Auch wenn man nicht so ganz warm wird mit Peggy, so erfährt man doch einiges über ihre schillernde Persönlichkeit. Das wunderschöne und farbenfrohe Cover des Buches ist einfach ein Hingucker und eine Zierde in jedem Regal.

[Literary Redhead · Rating 4 out of 5]

This intriguing histfic bio reveals heiress Peggy Guggenheim throughout her life, as survivor of many tragedies (she lost her father on the Titanic when she was 14), abused wife, and art collector/founder of her own museum in Venice. Recommended!

[jocelyn • coolgalreading · Rating 2 out of 5]

i feel bad rating this so low but this was a slog to get through

[Elita Lahm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sunku rasti tinkamus žodžius istorijai, kuri parašyta remiantis tikrais įvykiais ir asmenybėmis. Labai sofistikuotas kūrinys, įkvepiantis. Atvaizduota nežmoniška Pegės Guggenheim stiprybė, ne tik judėti į priekį per visas gyvenimo negandas, bet dar ir sukurti kažką tokio, kas pakeitė moderniojo meno istoriją visiems laikams. Džiaugiuosi, kad ši istorija tapo knyga.

[Amber · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a DNF for me.

Peggy is a historical fiction novel about Peggy Guggenheim, someone who I know little about, and unfortunately, reading this book hasn’t made me any more interested in learning about her.

Like other reviews have mentioned, the writing can be difficult to get through. There’s a lot of shifting timelines, which you might not immediately pick up on due to the stream-of-conscious writing and the frequent lack of quotation marks (which isn’t always done consistently). Sometimes it feels like a thought is written with the intention of being profound, but it just falls flat like an incomplete sentence. Other times it’s difficult to separate what actually happens in real life versus what is only taking place in the MC’s mind, which makes it hard to connect to any of the characters and care about what happens to them.

Readers who might enjoy this book are ones already interested in the life of Peggy Guggenheim and who enjoy a stream-of-conscious writing style.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Peggy by Rebecca Godfrey is available now wherever books are sold.

[MrsHarvieReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this historical fiction novel based on the life of Peggy Guggenheim. I was not familiar with Peggy, an heiress, confined by society, who became a world renowned art collector. The novel was primarily researched and written by Ms Godfrey, before her untimely death in 2022. Her author friend, Ms Jamison was tasked with completing the novel. It was clear to me where the writing styles differed and made the overall reading experience feel disjointed. I also struggled with Peggy herself, as she is not an entirely sympathetic character. She is haunted by the death of her beloved father on the Titanic and feels cursed. She stays in an abusive marriage and neglects her children and closest family members. Ultimately she comes to live her bohemian life on her own terms and is successful in her pursuit of the arts. 3⭐️/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up

The remarkable story of American heiress Peggy Guggenheim, born at the end of the 19th century but who developed such a keen artistic eye that she amassed one of the world’s greatest modern art collections. This is a true historical novel in all its fascinating detail of life on turn-of-the-century Park Avenue, then Peggy’s life as a young woman working in a famed bookshop in the East Village, before heading to Europe and life in a circle of artists and writers. (This should include trigger warnings about the physical brutality of life with her oafish, so-called poet husband.) The reader gets a real sense of the person behind the legend, a strong woman who (eventually) knew her own mind and was ahead of her time.

Though much of the book was finished, Godfrey unfortunately died before she could complete it. Leslie Jamison finished it following notes and a plan Godfrey left behind, but there’s a sense of attenuation at the end of the book, with some of the life and energy missing as events move to what fells like a rushed, much less detailed conclusion.

[Paige Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

I knew nothing about the Guggenheims, aside from hearing the name of the museum in passing, until I read this book. It was an artistic and self-aware exploration of her early life and the effects her family and romantic partners had on her pursuit of art and independence.

It was nearly a five-star read for me but I found that the plot kind of fell off in the third part and Peggy’s incredible achievement of opening her galleries could have been highlighted more instead of all of her qualms with Laurence: her sadistic and chauvinist husband.

Thanks again to my friends at Penguin for the ARC <3

[Strega Di Gatti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy on the romantic troubles of wealthy dilettantes, and light on art collecting, Peggy is a pulpy page turner where Peggy Guggenheim’s decades-long contribution to the lives of artists and their work is barely peripheral to her characterization. The fashion, food, destinations, possessions, and spats of rich people are what Rebecca Godfrey's fictionalized autobiography of this famous name is all about!

You won’t find much insight into the relationships or work of the Parisian intellectuals that this time period was so famous for. Famous names pop in-and-out without introduction. Peggy sure doesn’t seem to care that they’re around ... Unless she's sleeping with them. Godfrey spends several chapters describing Peggy’s restoration of her Saint-Tropez villa while name-dropping a dozen interesting real-life people she is helping off-page (and whom we never actually meet).

By the way, Peggy is lovingly restoring this villa for her useless spouse. Oh, the useless men in this novel! They're Peggy's #1 focus. You’ll marvel at the luminous and complex, metaphor-laden descriptions of the men Peggy is sleeping with. Samuel Beckett is like: “trestles or branches, objects slender and dangerous.”

But when Peggy tries to describe a painting in this book, it usually sounds something like: “A blue face with wings”.

Peggy features paragraph after paragraph about how the lovers in her life make Peggy feel. Lovers characterized predominantly as violent or incompetent men, and talented female artists who cruelly turn on her, with no explanation offered for this. Do we need to go to Wikipedia to get the full goss? Oh, there's goss out there about Peggy's behaviour which somehow didn't make the book ...

... I laughed out loud when Emma Goldman (!!!) persuades Peggy that her vast, tainted, and unearned Guggenheim wealth isn’t something she should ever feel guilty for, because it has allowed Peggy to buy a nice cottage for Emma! More chuckles when Goldman lovingly dedicates her two-volume memoir "To Peggy". The only fact-check required here was opening Goldman’s memoir.

You can't blame me for having expectations. Godfrey sets-up the novel with Peggy's observations on art as a child. Young Peggy feels frustrated that she can only describe art in a classical, academic sense. One gets the feeling that this is preparing us for Peggy to go on a journey towards a more elevated understanding of her hobby-turned-life's work, but we hear very little about how she perceives artistic works as an adult.

Peggy’s final insights into surrealism are that the pieces are “oddly compelling” and looking at surrealist art makes her feel like she “stumbled onto something". My goodness, that’s all she has to say?

This book raised an uncomfortable question: Did Rebecca Godfrey like art? Her novel was finished posthumously by Leslie Jamison, so it's not possible to clarify. Peggy Guggenheim divorced from the world of abstract expressionism is, frankly, not so interesting a person to read a fictionalized story about, no matter how pained she is by her father’s death on the Titanic.

If you're looking for a compelling subject for a fictionalized drama, Peggy’s younger sister Hazel was herself a prolific artist, was married seven times, and was accused of murdering her two small children. I mean, now this woman's villa I want to see!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published August 19, 2024.

A novelization of the life of Peggy Guggenheim, she was the middle daughter of two parents from storied Jewish families. Her life changed forever when she was fourteen and her father, Benjamin was among those lost on the Titanic. Even from a young age she felt strongly that she intended to have a meaningful life and she eventually dedicated herself to art, particularly modern art and surrealism. Though she struggled against both sexism and anti-Semitism she made her way through the world in her own spectacular way.

A good book, even though it has some understandable flaws. Rebecca Godfrey worked on the book for ten years and when she realized she would not live to finish it she completed as many notes as she could so that the novel could be completed by another, and Leslie Jamison, who appears to have been one of Godfrey’s teacher’s took on that task. It’s easy to see the work Godfrey did versus what was cobbled together after, and it’s a shame Godfrey was unable to finish the book her way.

The book covers Peggy’s youth, spent with sisters Benita and Hazel (tragedies, both), then her early life in France, her marriage to Laurence Vail, her relationships with Emma Goldman, the suffragette and Samuel Beckett and the very beginning of her first art collection. Perhaps this was the only period of Peggy’s life worth recounting, but that seems doubtful, and I wish we had more. A very enjoyable read and I’m glad Godfrey’s passion project will be published.

[Darby Ensign · Rating 4 out of 5]

heavy book

[AMenagerieofWords Deb Coco · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is nice to bloom late in life. I think maybe one appreciates it more.
Peggy
Rebecca Godfrey with Leslie Jamison

The name Guggenheim is synonymous with wealth, art, museums and collecting, yet I knew next to nothing about Peggy's personal life. You know I'm always searching for my next art read, so a huge thank you to @randomhouse @atrandomhouse for sending both an arc and a beautiful finished copy.

Guggenheim's life was riddled with tragedy from start to finish. Her father, Benjamin Guggenheim, was one of many wealthy American businessmen to go down on the Titanic. She was one of three daughters and lost both sisters - one to death during childbirth and the other to madness after an unbelievable catastrophe with her two sons. Peggy's first marriage to sculptor Laurence Vail, was full of abuse and after their divorce she had numerous relationships - Samuel Beckett and Max Ernst being two infamous names she was coupled with.

The hardships she endured in her personal life prove that no amount of money insulates us from misfortune, but they also clearly were formative to her strength of character. In my own mind, I always had her in the same category as Isabella Stewart Gardner - two women who, before it was "acceptable", were trailblazers in predominantly male fields.

Peggy is a novel, so it forms a fictionalized story around her early life and how art became her everything. It is hard to imagine what someone did and said and thought but Godfrey crafted a readable and intriguing look at an icon of the modern art scene.

It is very important to read the end Note on the Text and Acknowledgments because the author passed away before the book was finished. Leslie Jamison (author of Splinters, a book I recently raved about) was asked to help finish this and get it to press - it all came together beautifully and thank goodness Godfrey's decade's worth of research came to fruition.

If you enjoy the art world as I do, I don't think you'll want to miss this one.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.9. A very interesting historical fiction on Peggy Guggenheim, a well known art collector and member of the New York City Guggenheim family. I have been to her museums and those of her family and am aware of her family so was very interested to read this book. Apparently the author, Rebecca Godfrey, tragically passed away before completing the novel. Friends and family impressively stepped up after she passed away to complete it based on her outlines and notes. In my opinion, although I enjoyed the history of Ms. Guggenheim, there were lapses in the story which at points made it meandering and in others less clear or descriptive of her life, particularly in her later years when she became an even greater presence in the art world as well as her interesting friendships and acquaintances. I applaud the efforts of those who worked so hard to complete her work but it made it more difficult to read and seemed incomplete. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an advance copy in exchange for a candid and unbiased review.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book but unfortunately I found it disjointed and difficult to follow. The writing was beautiful and poetic; however, I was constantly confused about timelines and was frustrated when the stream of consciousness style writing often spoiled events that were yet to come. That being said, I knew nothing of Peggy going into this so perhaps it was written with the expectation that readers know a little more about her work and life.

[Camilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

il romanzo racconta la storia davvero incredibile di peggy. E molto interessante e appassionante. mi ha colpito anche il fatto che l'autrice abbia dedicato i suoi ultimo istanti di vita per assicurarsi che un giorno il suo libro venisse pubblicato.
non nego pero' di aver faticato a volto a scorrere tra le pagine. uno stile di scrittura per i miei gusti non sempre scorrevole

[auj · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring xo

[Simona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iš tų tikrai mano knygų! 💛 @svajoniu_knygos rašė, kad mano tipo ir neklydo. 💛

Gėda man, bet Pegės Gugenheim nežinojau, užtat dabar jaučiuosi apsišvietus. Perskaičius dar kiek pasidomėjau - verta knygos ir susipažinimo asmenybė!

Jau mačiau, kad buvo tų, kuriems kliuvo pasakojimo stilius, tarsi fragmentiškas, tarsi minčiai vis nušoliuojant ir grįžtant. Man pasakojimo stilius čia buvo vienas iš pliusų, skatino azartą sujungt taškus pačiai, neprarast budrumo.

Nebespėjau knygoje sekti visų įžymių žmonių, kurių gyvenimai pynėsi su Pegės gyvenimu, nes jų tokia gausybė, kad sunku paprastam žmogui ir suvokti. Grįžo noras susirasti Becket'o kūrinių! Ir kaip džiaugdavaus tomis asmenybėmis, kurias radus žinojau, o ne googlinau! Vis koks pliusas bendram išprusimui. 😃

Pačios Pegės Gugenheim asmenybė tikrai spalvotas stiprios moters portretas! Ji traukia, ji kitokia, ji ta, kuri įkvėpia gyventi visišką autentišką savą gyvenimą, net jei mano pasirinkimai ar gyvenimas su jos nesutaptų. Žavėjaus, kaip gyvenimo smūgiai nepalaužė, bet tarsi įkvėpė savitumui, o turtai tapo priemone remti meną ir menininkus, kuriais pati Pegė tikėjo.

Knygoje daug skaudžių akimirkų, neįtikėtinas taikstymasis su smurtaujančio vyro elgesiu, artimųjų mirtys, bet visame tame chaose vis išryškėja pačios Pegės unikalumas ir savitas požiūris į pasaulį.

Pasimėgavau skaitymu.

[Jennifer]

About 125 pages in and had to let it go due to the disjointed story and timeline.

[eliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro capolavoro. Interessantissimo scoprire la storia di Peggy raccontata in prima persona. Avevo paura mi annoiasse, ma invece era un cliffhanger dopo l'altro, super consigliato

[Kelly (The Happiest Little Book Club) · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Rating: 4.25/5

(The audiobook is not a format option but I will update the edition once it is).

I was very excited about this audiobook (with thanks to Libro.fm for the ALC). Having been to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in NYC and knowing very little about Peggy, I wanted to get to know the person behind the famous family name. Peggy is the niece of Solomon.

This book is broken into three parts. I LOVED part one and enjoyed parts two and three. I had no idea that Peggy's father, Benjamin, had been a passenger on the Titanic. She certainly had a lot of loss and disappointment in her life. She had two marriages and a variety of romantic partners.

I loved the references to famous art and artists (writers, painters, poets, etc.). I also loved the narration. It was a very well done audiobook.

If you love biographical/historical fiction novels, you will enjoy this book.

ps. The book was finished by Leslie Jamison, as Rebecca passed away from cancer in October 2022. Rebecca had spent 10 years writing the book before her passing. She also made her wishes known to those close to her in how she wanted the book to be finished/published prior to her passing.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book with a heart warming yet wrenching note on the text at the end - a lovely collaboration between to talented women about another talented woman!

[Mapi · Rating 4 out of 5]

«È questo che fa un buon quadro o una storia d'amore. Lascia che qualcosa di selvaggio cresca da una crepa nella sua compostezza».

Viene raccontata la vicenda di Peggy Guggenheim, una delle più facoltose famiglie del Novecento. Ci addentriamo nella ricca nobiltà che vive nella Fifth Avenue, Peggy e le sorelle vengono educate alla cultura, al buon gusto, lingue e letterature, studiano la dizione. Vivono in una prigione d'oro dove devono muoversi leggiadre e mai alzare la voce.
Ma la tragedia porterà le figlie a muovere i primi passi nel mondo.
_
La prosa è poetica e drammatica, una scrittura di impatto per farci intravedere la vera Peggy, un'ereditiera, che anela bellezza e violenza, sempre un po' anticonformista.
_
Ne siamo catturati: spavalda, vivace, complessa, in un abbaglio di desideri e dolori. Avvertiamo come lei e la sorella, Benita, desiderino mordere la vita e non essere soffocate da frivolezze.
_
Peggy sceglierà di perdersi a Parigi, città in fermento, fresca e colorata rispetto alla grigia e raffinata New York. E qui vivremo i cafè, l'arte, la stravaganza, il matrimonio, i figli. L'idillio che si frantuma: il marito violento, le tragedie della vita, il lutto, il dolore inconcepibile.
_
Una vita rocambolesca: ha aiutato numerosi artisti, ha vissuto scandali e passioni, delusioni, paure. È una donna che pensa e ha delle opinioni ma spesso viene trattata con falsa affabilità, essendo un'ereditiera la colpevolizza sempre negli occhi altrui: viene vista come una persona che deve sempre dare, dare e dare.
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Ribelle ma attenta a non strabordare in un mondo maschile che aspettava di vederla traballare con difficoltà.
Eppure, smonta il convenzionale e crea qualcosa di innovativo, destinato a durare: una galleria d'arte all'insegna del Surrealismo.
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Peggy è un personaggio inquieto: diretta, sardonica e sfuggente. Le autrici sono riuscite a calcare la sua figura tormentata. Che attira scalpore, meraviglia, forte di una lucentezza che non diventa mai opaca. L'unica Principessa d'argento.

[Stephanie Coniff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Net Galley for my advanced e-copy of Peggy by: Rebecca Godfrey & Leslie Jamison The opinions are my own.


This is a historical fiction book about socialite, Heiress, and art collector, Peggy Guggenheim. She is often misunderstood as a 'loose' and tough woman, but this story explains how the series of events in her life from childhood, including the death of her father on the Titanic, helped shape her into the progressive and artistically gifted woman she became. She went through so much loss/death, and troubled relationships, but was eager to pursue her passion and open galleries and collect art during the mid and later part of her life.

I did find the information and perspective of Peggy's life to be interesting to read as I didn't know much about this branch of the Guggenheim family. You can definitely see how much research went into this book by both authors, and how they worked hard to give Peggy a voice that many would not have ever have known. However, for me, a lot of the book seemed to go off on tangents about various people she met, and sometimes it was hard to follow. Also, I didn't find Peggy particularly pleasant as a person (which isn't her fault really), so she was a little hard to like at times. I did feel sorry for all of the loss and occasional persecution she experienced. The book in general was interesting to a point, but it wasn't what I expected.

Read this if you are into this time period and art collection. Pub date is August 13, 2024.

#Peggy #Randomhousegroup #NetGalley

[Vaiva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pradėdama skaityti nekreipiau dėmesio į leidyklą. Pabaigusi, supratau, kad reikėjo🙂 Ne todėl, kad bloga leidykla, o todėl, kad knyga ne apie tai, ko tikėjausi. Nors, nebuvo visiškai nuobodu ar neįdomu, bet tikrai be didesnio indėlio į prasmę😎