Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia [Hardcover]

James Fox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2000

The author of the bestseller "White Mischief" tells the story of the beautiful Langhorne sisters, who lived at the Pinnacle of high and powerful society from the end of the Civil War through the Second World War. Making their way across two continents, they left in their wakes rich husbands, fame, adoration, and scandal.

Lizzie, Irene, Nancy, Phyllis, and Nora were born in Virginia to a family impoverished by the Civil War. Their father remade his fortune by collaborating with the Yankees and building rail-roads; the sisters became southern belles and northern debutantes. James Fox draws on unpublished correspondence between the sisters and their husbands, lovers, children, and the powerful and glamorous of their day to construct a plural topography with the scope of a grand novel and the pace of a historical thriller.

At its center is the most famous sister, Nancy, who married Waldorf Astor, one of the richest men in the world. Heroic, hilarious, magnetically charming, and a bully, Lady Astor became Britain's first female MP, championing women's rights and the poor. The beautiful Irene married Charles Dana Gibson and was the model for the Gibson Girl. The author's grandmother, Phyllis, married a famous economist, one of the architects of modern Europe.

Fox has written an absorbing and spirited, intimate and sweeping account of extraordinary women at the highest reaches of society, their adventures set against the background of a tumultuous century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With the same narrative panache and gift for good gossip that made White Mischief such fun, James Fox turns his attention here to the Langhorne sisters, Southern beauties who wielded a powerful influence in politics and culture during the tumultuous years from the turn of the 20th century through the Second World War. Lizzie (1867-1914) married a Virginian and stayed home, but her siblings conquered Yankee America and England. Irene (1873-1956) married Charles Dana Gibson and served as the model for that all-American icon, the Gibson girl. Baby sister Nora (1889-1955), dreamy and artistic, had a turbulent life scattered with lovers including, perhaps, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Nancy (1879-1964) entered English society through second husband Waldorf Astor and focused her formidable energies on politics as the first female member of Parliament and hostess to the notorious "Cliveden set." Sensitive, introspective Phyllis (1880-1937), the author's grandmother, survived a bad first marriage and an affair with a British officer to happily wed the brilliant English economist Bob Brand. Fox makes excellent use of thousands of the sisters' letters to reveal five dynamic personalities in their own words. His shrewd commentary provides context for a riveting tale of family ties, social commitments, and the complex interplay between them that shaped the Langhorne women's lives. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly

Beginning in the genteel poverty of post- Civil War Richmond, Va., transformed by Langhorne pere's belated success as a railroad tycoon, the Langhorne sisters' trajectories spanned the upper reaches of Anglo-American society. The oldest, Lizzie, remained within the confines of Richmond's narrow-minded aristocracy; the next, Irene, identified by Fox without explanation as "the last great Southern Belle," married Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the Gibson Girl; the third, Nancy, became Lady Astor and the first woman elected to the British Parliament (1919); the fourth, Phyllis, married Robert Brand, a brilliant civil servant once dubbed "the wisest man in the [British] Empire;" the fifth, Nora, a perennial embarrassment and pathological liar, nonetheless inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald to sober up temporarily during the last desperate phase of his life. Ideally, their story could illuminate the strengths and limitations of the aristocratic milieu these women arose from and partly refashioned, when juxtaposed with the broadest imaginable array of outside influences they encountered, while also providing an engrossing portrait of remarkable individuals, clashing in multiple ways with norms as well as stereotypes of their times. Instead, readers are shortchanged and will be put off by an excessive focus on Lady Astor (Lizzie and Irene are almost totally ignored, Phyllis plays second fiddle and Nora left field) and an overemphasis on drearily repetitive aspects of dysfunctional family life (while crucial aspects of social context are left unexplained), as if the author, a grandson of Phyllis (and author of the bestselling White Mischief), were still trying to exorcise family ghosts. Fascinating hints abound, isolated episodes are brilliant, but repeated tragic blindness on the part of these five women, as related by Fox, readily blots out all else. Photos. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (March 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684808129
• ISBN-13: 978-0684808123
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #669,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

114 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent Biography, March 7, 2000

By 

anneelise "anneliseirish" (Wyandotte, MI United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia (Hardcover)

I have long held an interest in Nancy Astor and her somewhat less famous sisters, and here they all are in one book. I tried so hard to make this book last but I couldn't stop plowing right through. The Langhorne sisters lived a rarefied life, every one of them, to what most of us in the year 2000 could imagine. James Fox brought his grandmother, Phyllis Brand, and her sisters to life through their voluminous correspondence, saved by her husband. For all their wealth and privilege, they suffered some terrible tragedies and for the most part continued on. This book seems to be a true labor of love, and I would recommend it to anyone who's interested in a way of life that no longer exists.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE RICH ARE DEFINITELY DIFFERENT!, February 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia (Hardcover)

This was a very interesting, annoying and heartfelt biography of the author's mother's family, the Langhornes of Virginia. A family impoverished by the Civil War that became the creme of society in the late 19th Century and continued through the 20th Century. The story centers on the five sisters, Lizzie, Irene, Nancy, Phyllis and Nora; each, who in their own way became celebrities in their own right.

There's Lizzie who was old enough to remember the mind-numbing and humiliating poverty brought by the Civil War. She is embittered by the younger siblings' treatment of her in adulthood. Irene's beauty is enshrined when she marries Dana Gibson and becomes the model for the Gibson girl. Phyllis struggles to end her unhappy marriage and eventually migrates to England. Nora, the youngest, the dreamer and wayward one, keeps the sisters' busy covering up scandal after scandal. Then there is Nancy. She becomes the most famous sister when she marries Waldorf Astor, one of the richest men in the world who possesses her children and everyone around her alike, often with disastrous results.

The author researched the book very well. I especially enjoyed the historical detail thrown in. I've read books on both WWI and WWII and never got the full gist of the events leading up to both wars. However, through the author's families eyewitness account and actual involvement at the highest level of political involvement, I got a better understanding of how and why Hitler came to power. The book's focus is on Nancy and Phyllis and does tend to lose track of the other sisters' doings; however, not enough to detract from the overall book. The book is definitely an eye-opener into the inner workings of a super-rich family that didn't seem to be happy despite their stupendous wealth. Worth a read.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As The World Turns - Langhorne Style, March 17, 2003

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia (Paperback)

This excellent biography takes an in-depth look at the famous, turn-of-the-century five Langhorne sisters of Virginia. The author is the grandson of one of the sisters, which gave him unprecedented access to some never-before-published letters and journals. Lizzie, Irene, and Nora take a back seat to highly visible Nancy (Lady Astor, first woman to serve in Parliament) and Phyllis, the author's grandmother. The author weaves historical and political background around the sisters' stories, which gives the book a pleasurable informational heft and weight.

They started out poor, as most Virginians were after the calamity of the Civil War. Eldest sister Lizzie was born in 1867, only two years after the war. Father, Chillie Langhorne, hit it big about twenty years later by entering into business with some Yankee railroaders. Then he was able to purchase the fabled Mirador, a perfect setting for his daughters. Chillie and mother Nemoire could have been stand-ins for Scarlett O'Hara's father and mother. Chillie was a hard-drinking charmer and a complete autocrat while Nemoire was almost saintly in her beauty and patience. They had eleven children, eight who lived, five girls and three boys. Two of the boys died young of a combination of hard drinking and tuberculosis.

Eldest Lizzie, who grew up poor and was already married living in genteel poverty in Richmond when Chillie hit it big, resented her sister's success all her life---but thought monetary gifts were her due. Irene was a true phenom, a bona fide celebrity, the last true Southern Belle who took the entire East Coast by storm with her breathtaking beauty. She married Charles Dana Gibson and was the prototype of the Gibson Girl. Irene may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she was kind (a rare trait among the Langhorne girls) and supportive all her life. Volatile, incredible Nancy who married and divorced a Boston millionaire, then married one of the richest men in the world, Waldorf Astor, almost single-handedly tore her family apart with her extreme possessiveness of both her sisters and children. Nancy looked like a beautiful, frail Edwardian lady with marvelously intense sapphire-colored eyes. Looks deceive. She was actually fiery, cruelly witty, and indomnible. Phyllis followed Nancy's footsteps marrying and divorcing an East Coast millionaire and remarrying famed British economist Robert Brand. Phyllis was soulful, the best woman rider in the country, and was a born martyr. My favorite was baby sister Nora, scatter-brained, scandalous, with a complete disregard for the truth fell in and out of love all her life. Men could not resist her. Nora's sisters had to bail her out over and over again, while Nora sincerely said she had made a "fresh start" every time. But Nora was a loving, generous person and a wonderful caring mother (her daughter was the actress Joyce Grenfell), and her nieces and nephews adored her.

"Five Sisters" is a fascinating read, well researched with an excellent index and bibliography. I recommend it highly.
-sweetmolly-Amazon reviewer