$150
VAN RENSSELAER, Philip
[239] pp.
Duell, Sloan and Pearce
1959
First Edition
8 1/4" x 5 3/8"
Jacket painting by Cecil Beaton
This is the story of Violet Amory, a New York society beauty of the twenties and thirties, who sought a carefree life in the playgrounds and pleasure resorts of the idle rich, but found the price more than she could pay. With her young son Peter, her devoted hangers-on, her kennel of little dogs, her Cartier jewels and Vuitton trunks, she drifted to Venice, Paris, the Riviera, New York, and Newport, leaving a trail of beautiful young men behind her." The story is narrated by the son, who "describes with elegance, charm, and a deftly unobtrusive irony the ultra-fashionable world" through which his mother gayly wafts.