Customer Reviews

Grace Kelly: A Life in Pictures

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a beautiful book. It begins with a brief (and fairly shallow) biography. The majority of the book features over 180 photographs from Grace Kelly's life, from infancy through to her funeral, in both colour and black and white, interspersed with quotations by or about Grace. The reproduction and layout of the photographs and the quality of the paper stock are both high and the result is a lovely coffee table book. Most of the photos are stunning and many are ones that I have not seen before.

Having said that, my impression was that the book had been compiled hastily and without care. Some quibbles:
- Some dates are incorrect. For example there is a photograph of Princess Grace meeting John F Kennedy dated May 24, 1964 - which seems unlikely given that it was 6 months after his assassination! Elsewhere there are two photographs of the same event (Grace's arrival in Monaco for her wedding) one of which is dated April 12 1956 and the other April 14 1956.
- The photographs are not always displayed in chronological order. For example, midway through a number of photos from the height of her film career in the mid-fifties comes a shot of Her Serene Highness attending a party in 1977. I found this annoying and detrimental to the idea that we were following the span of her life - especially as the majority ARE chronologically arranged.
- While most of the photos are gorgeous, some appeared to have been chosen simply because they were previously unseen rather than because of any photographic merit - photographs that were out of focus or badly composed. Others were colour photographs reproduced in black and white, probably to sit better alongside other black and white images, but I would have preferred to see them as originally taken.

This is still a lovely book and would be a great gift for a Grace Kelly fan. It is just a shame that more care was not put into its compilation and it is for this reason that I give it only 3 stars.

My wife is a Grace Kelly fan. I tend to buy her any book I come across about Princess Grace. I feel that this is a good book to add to a collection of Princess Grace books but it is not the definitive book on Grace Kelly.

This book is authorized by the Grimaldi family and as compared to other books it has the feel of prior restraint. The closeness with the family gives us pictures cannot be found in other books; however the text adds nothing to the life of the Princess. It feels that the authors had censored themselves. I was not looking for a tabloid account but perhaps a more realistic account would have been better.

A lot has been said about inaccurate facts, typographical errors, and editorial gaffes. I still believe despite all of its shortcomings that this is a book worth buying.

I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in the size of this addition to the "Life in Pictures" series (my own fault for not reading the dimensions before buying). The other "Life in Pictures" books I have purchased have been large, oversized productions that bring to life the lives of their subjects by way of extravagantly sized photos with captions in a comfortable font. The print in this book is literally 1/16th of an inch tall. Also, it is very oddly arranged. The photos skip around the Princess' life in a haphazard manner. The arrangement made no sense to me, and I would have preferred a chronological order.

That said, the scope of the photos is expansive in its inclusion of many private photos of the Princess and her family, as well as gorgeous portraits, unposed snapshots, and film stills. As a result of this book, I feel as though I know Princess Grace more intimately than ever before. The biographical section at the beginning of the book is a good overview of many of the important events of her life, and there are many quotes included, both by Princess Grace and about her. But the main story here is the pictures, which encompass so many of the moments, both private and public, of her life.

Overall, this comprehensive collection is a wonderful look at the life of Princess Grace. Although it is a bit small in size for a book primarily telling a story through pictures, I believe most will be satisfied with the scope of the photos included.

Sad to say, but the cover of this poorly organized, rather thin volume, is the best part.

Consider the subject, one of the most beautiful women ever, whose qualities of an easy yet over-whelming sensuality, a stop a clock (or a man's heart) beauty, a legendary leading lady of Hollywood, is hardly reflected in this book.

The photographs are poorly organized and even worse, poorly cropped. At times, the blank page takes up more room than the subject. This book is hardly worth the price.

Smaller than I thought it would be. I was disappointed to see wrong dates and some pics out of chronological order. As a serious fan, it's ok for my collection, however my ultimate favorite is "Grace" by (her favorite photographer, Howell Conant). It is large and has an excellent photographic collection with many pics that are photojournalistic as Howell accompanied her on many family vacations. There are many pics of her Hollywood years and a wonderful collection of her life in Monaco. My advice is if you purchase Conant's book, you will have a classic that you will spend many happy afternoons revisiting. The Howell Conant book was published before her death so that is not featured, of course. In a nutshell "A Life in Pictures" is nice to look at. Buy it cheap. Find the Howell Conant book - this is the one you really want!

Photography was excellent, Tommy Hilfiger's Forward was excellent. Many of the photos were ones seldom printed. The text was pretty informative. The time between my ordering this book and its actual delivery date was quite long but close to Amazon's estimated delivery date, which I did not notice till after I ordered the book. (It is shipped from the publisher in the UK).

This book was even better than the description suggested. It was in near perfect shape. It made my Grace Kelly obsessed daughter very happy.

The pictures are very beautiful. Grace Kelly was very photogenic, and I have yet to see any bad pics. It's hard to find too many picture books of her, but this one does her the most justice.

This is one of my favorite books. A must have for all Grace Kelly fans. The pictures are beautiful and it tells the story of Grace and Rainer. This is ONE GREAT BOOK!

Best image selection, best layout, moving foreword by Prince Albert.