The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel [Hardcover]

Lauren Weisberger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2003

A delightfully dishy novel about the all-time most impossible boss in the history of impossible bosses.

Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job “a million girls would die for.” Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor of Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish women and beautiful men clad in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and tight leather pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to complaints about “The Boss from Hell.” Narrated in Andrea’s smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties. From sending the latest, not-yet-in-stores Harry Potter to Miranda’s children in Paris by private jet, to locating an unnamed antique store where Miranda had at some point admired a vintage dresser, to serving lattes to Miranda at precisely the piping hot temperature she prefers, Andrea is sorely tested each and every day—and often late into the night with orders barked over the phone. She puts up with it all by keeping her eyes on the prize: a recommendation from Miranda that will get Andrea a top job at any magazine of her choosing. As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the downright outrageous, however, Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for may just kill her. And even if she survives, she has to decide whether or not the job is worth the price of her soul.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's a killer title: The Devil Wears Prada. And it's killer material: author Lauren Weisberger did a stint as assistant to Anna Wintour, the all-powerful editor of Vogue magazine. Now she's written a book, and this is its theme: narrator Andrea Sachs goes to work for Miranda Priestly, the all-powerful editor of Runway magazine. Turns out Miranda is quite the bossyboots. That's pretty much the extent of the novel, but it's plenty. Miranda's behavior is so insanely over-the-top that it's a gas to see what she'll do next, and to try to guess which incidents were culled from the real-life antics of the woman who's been called Anna "Nuclear" Wintour. For instance, when Miranda goes to Paris for the collections, Andrea receives a call back at the New York office (where, incidentally, she's not allowed to leave her desk to eat or go to the bathroom, lest her boss should call). Miranda bellows over the line: "I am standing in the pouring rain on the rue de Rivoli and my driver has vanished. Vanished! Find him immediately!"

This kind of thing is delicious fun to read about, though not as well written as its obvious antecedent, The Nanny Diaries. And therein lies the essential problem of the book. Andrea's goal in life is to work for The New Yorker--she's only sticking it out with Miranda for a job recommendation. But author Weisberger is such an inept, ungrammatical writer, you're positively rooting for her fictional alter ego not to get anywhere near The New Yorker. Still, Weisberger has certainly one-upped Me Times Three author Alex Witchel, whose magazine-world novel never gave us the inside dope that was the book's whole raison d' etre. For the most part, The Devil Wears Prada focuses on the outrageous Miranda Priestly, and she's an irresistible spectacle. --Claire Dederer

From Publishers Weekly

Most recent college grads know they have to start at the bottom and work their way up. But not many picture themselves having to pick up their boss's dry cleaning, deliver them hot lattes, land them copies of the newest Harry Potter book before it hits stores and screen potential nannies for their children. Charmingly unfashionable Andrea Sachs, upon graduating from Brown, finds herself in this precarious position: she's an assistant to the most revered-and hated-woman in fashion, Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly. The self-described "biggest fashion loser to ever hit the scene," Andy takes the job hoping to land at the New Yorker after a year. As the "lowest-paid-but-most-highly-perked assistant in the free world," she soon learns her Nine West loafers won't cut it-everyone wears Jimmy Choos or Manolos-and that the four years she spent memorizing poems and examining prose will not help her in her new role of "finding, fetching, or faxing" whatever the diabolical Miranda wants, immediately. Life is pretty grim for Andy, but Weisberger, whose stint as Anna Wintour's assistant at Vogue couldn't possibly have anything to do with the novel's inspiration, infuses the narrative with plenty of dead-on assessments of fashion's frivolity and realistic, funny portrayals of life as a peon. Andy's mishaps will undoubtedly elicit laughter from readers, and the story's even got a virtuous little moral at its heart. Weisberger has penned a comic novel that manages to rise to the upper echelons of the chick-lit genre.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (April 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038550926X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385509268
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,060 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lauren Weisberger is the author of The Devil Wears Prada, which spent more than a year on the New York Times hardcover and paperback bestseller lists. The film version, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, won a Golden Globe Award and grossed over $300 million worldwide. Her second novel, Everyone Worth Knowing, was also a New York Times bestseller. She lives in New York City with her husband.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

223 of 254 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, April 16, 2003

By 

Kimberley Wilson (VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel (Hardcover)

There is an enormous amount of buzz about this book because the author used to work at Vouge. Most of the PR implies that this is a roman a clef about those days. So far the reviews that I've seen in a least two major fashion magazines haven't been kind but that can be chalked up to fashionistas being annoyed with someone who mocked their world.

Does the book live up to the hype? Yes and no.

It's an amusing book. The descriptions of downtown life in NYC, the side characters and the horrible antics of mean Miranda Priestly are fun but the heroine, Andrea is such a stuck up little snob that it's difficult to care about her. Margaret Mitchell was able to take a character who was an absolute monster and make millions love her. Lauren Weisberger doesn't have that kind of ability.

What's really annoying is that the book has a choppy feel. Andrea lurches from one disaster to another with no transition in between. The plot has a formula that is an old as Greek mythology. The scenes with the best friend character, Lilly and the boyfriend, Alex won't surprise anyone. The climax is straight out of an old Edgar Wallace plotwheel. The ending was a sappy, predictable let down.

The bottom line is this: if you love fashion and gossip The Devil Wears Prada will make you smile. If you want a terrific book, this won't be the one you're looking for.

84 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lucifer in a Nutshell, March 11, 2005

By 

Alycia "Alycia" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel (Paperback)

Summary of "The Devil Wears Prada"

- badly dressed, tacky young woman introduces herself as the "average" five
foot eleven inch, 120 pound woman who miraculously lands an undeserved
job as a personal assistant at a fashion magazine, immediately making every
other woman reading her story roll their eyes

- said young woman complains endlessly about her miserable life of wearing
designer clothes, attending gala society parties, the inhumane rule of not
being able to smoke or make personal telephone calls during business hours,
and her boss's crass insistence that she do her job without copping an
attitude

- said young woman somehow manages to retain her job despite looking down
on all of her colleagues and willfully sabotaging company spending records

- young woman fails to look human because she reacts unrealistically to her
own problems, and those of her cardboard cutout plot-point friends

- young woman somehow attracts a world famous, handsome author despite
her failure to appear attractive to her merely locally famous elementary
school teacher boyfriend.

- young woman finally tells off boss

- young woman somehow lands job at another magazine as a writer, despite
having never demonstrated any talent to her audience

- everything comes up roses for young woman

- and then, nobody cared

245 of 297 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Trendy read and just as fleeting!, June 3, 2003

By 

Jorge Carreon, Jr. (South Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel (Hardcover)

Fashionistas around the globe have been salivating for the publication of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADAsince its first announcement. For those in love with all things Vogue et.al., who wouldn't want to read a deliciously biting roman a clef about a woman who is probably Anna Wintour and then some? Alas, that's the problem with the book, it only caters to those in the fashion know, which results in a shallow exercise of style over substance.

While author Lauren Weisberger has a grasp of sustaining a narrative, but the predictable scenarios she concocts are hardly the stuff of good fiction or, sadly, biting satire. Bitchy asides and brand names are stretched thin, for sure.

Even worse, her alter ego, Andrea, is too bland a creation for the reader to really care about. Her ambition is not telegraphed with any real force since all I kept thinking was why stick it out in a thankless job that is beyond demeaning? Is being a writer at the New Yorker that important? I'm sure it is for the character, but Ms. Weisberger's colorless prose fails to register such details with depth.

As for the infamous character of Miranda Priestly, I know plenty of folks like this woman. Hell, I even worked for one. The only real joy generated by this novel was smiling over what a complete and total virago she remains throughout the book. I also loved how Weisberger captured the absolute absurdity of such fields like fashion and other show business enterprises that rely so heavily on image. The worlds she creates are definitely based on some sort of fact, but it is unfortunate the she didn't take such an interest in her overall plot or characters.

Perhaps my dissatisfication in the novel stems from something greater. As "chick lit" continues to fill our minds and best seller charts, does the world need one more "Mary Tyler Moore-clone taking on the world on her terms kind of heroine?"
British sensation Helen Fielding offered some reality and humanity to the hip and happening world of Bridget Jones. However, Andrea Sachs is no Bridget Jones and the short-lasting effects of this novel makes you wonder why can't us Yankees create such a vivid piece of fiction!

Ultimately, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA is Diet coke for the brain. To be honest, I am tiring of our current fascination with excess, entitlement and shallowness. This hotly hyped novel implodes before its predictable "up yours" finale. Like the fashion magazines it lampoons -- it's all about really pretty pictures with ultimately very little to say.