Once upon a Time: A True Story [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Gloria Vanderbilt (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 475 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr; 1 edition (October 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896216535
• ISBN-13: 978-0896216532
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,718,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Story of a lonely little heiress, October 2, 2005

By 

Kona (Emerald City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Once upon a time: A true story

In this fascinating memoir, Gloria Vanderbilt describes the first seventeen years of her unusual life. Her earliest memories were of her father's death, and going to Paris to live with her mother. It was Gloria's greatest desire just to be noticed by her mother, to hear her voice, and maybe, if she were good enough, to actually be loved by her. But they were never alone; they were always surrounded by relatives, lovers, movie stars, and even royalty, and her only source of love was her beloved nurse.

At the age of ten, Gloria was involved in a controversial custody battle between her mother and her aunt, who became Gloria's new guardian. Gloria lived in a series of mansions and penthouses and watched the whirl of high society life around her as through a veil, never really connecting with anyone and having no idea who she really was or where she belonged.

This book is a rare peek into a girl's soul, a girl who just happened to be the most famous little rich girl in the country. She called herself The Imposter; fatherless, almost-motherless, whispered-about but never talked to, her life directed by lawyers and drowning in loneliness. As she said, if her story were a play, her part would be so small, she would be an understudy. "Once Upon a Time" is exciting, touching, and well-written, and impossible to put down.

Kona

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From a child's point of view, June 21, 2010

By 

Privacy, Please (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ONCE UPON A TIME (Hardcover)

In this first volume of her autobiography, "Little Gloria" Vanderbilt recounts the years of her life as a "poor little rich girl", who had money galore but not nearly enough love, in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1933, her life was forever marred by a vicious custody battle that pitted her grandmother and her wealthy Aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney on the one side, against Gloria's own young mother on the other side. Gloria, being too young to understand why the adults are fighting over control of her and her immense fortune, only wants to be with her beloved nanny Dodo, who has taken care of her all her life and who is the closest thing to a real, loving mother figure that Gloria ever had. Unfortunately, as events unfold, both Dodo and Gloria's real mother end up expelled from her life, leaving a void that's impossible to fill.

Gloria's stream-of-consciousness writing style focuses on expressing emotions, almost poetically in parts. At times the narrative does not flow logically, but it works because little children also do not think in perfect logical streams and thus GLoria's story sounds as if it's really being told by Gloria, the little child. However, if you're not familiar with the basic Gloria Vanderbilt custody-trial story, I recommend you read a different book on it or at least read about Gloria on Wikipedia before you start this book, as otherwise Gloria's narrative may be difficult to follow.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, May 14, 2011

By 

Caroline Lane "The Book Sorceress" (Roanoke, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Once upon a Time: A True Story (Hardcover)

After all these years, this story remains riveting.
Gloria Vanderbilt pulls you right smack into the world of her childhood, and let's you know how it feels to be a little girl at the center of a drama the adults in her life created....how it feels to feel both love and fear from the mother who ignores her, the mother who (according to the other adults in her life) wishes to see her dead.

I was so riveted by this book, that I bought the books that Gloria Senior wrote, portraying her account of the almost unbelievable events related in "Once Upon a Time."

There are many ways that Gloria Junior's life paralleled her mother's.

Both women were married at a young age to men much older.

Both women were given control of a large fortune, only to see that fortune melt away like cotton candy.

Both women were incredible beauties who wanted to be movie stars but it never quite happened.

Gloria Vanderbilt, the younger is an example of incredible resilience. The things this woman has gone through -- estrangement from her mother, divorce, the death of two of her children -- would make an ordinary woman crater.

GV's beauty is incredible (even in her eighth decade) but that is almost the least of her fascination.

I think this is her best book ever. She allows the reader a chance to peep into her fairy-tale childhood with its magic, its fairy godmothers, its Knights in Shining Armor, its witches and everything else.

This book is a rare treat -- a fairy tale that really happened.