Scruples [Mass Market Paperback]

Judith Krantz (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 1, 1989

Scruples is the novel that  created publishing history, the first-and widely  acknowledged to be the very best-novel ever written  about the staggeringly luxurious life of a Beverly  Hills boutique and the people who work in it.  Scruples was translated into twenty  languages and made Rodeo Drive famous around the  world. The New York Post said  that "Scruples was born to  be a smash bestseller. . . It has more inside  information about the worlds of high fashion and  Hollywood than you'd find in a dozen manuals."  With Scruples, Judith Krantz earned her reputation  as a blazingly talented and original storyteller.  she takes her readers behind the scenes of wealthy  and fame to show them the real people and the real  emotions that exist at the core of even the most  high-powered lives. Scruples is the leader of her  #1 best-selling  novels.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Judith Krantz writes with obvious  authority."--John Barkham Reviews

"Under Krantz's fingers, real life has a way  of becoming mysterious, glamorous, legendary,  sequined."--Vogue.

From the Publisher

"Under Krantz's fingers, real life has a way of becoming mysterious, glamorous, legendary, sequined."--Vogue.

Scruples is the novel that created publishing history, the first-and widely acknowledged to be the very best-novel ever written about the staggeringly luxurious life of a Beverly Hills boutique and the people who work in it. Scruples was translated into twenty languages and made Rodeo Drive famous around the world. The New York Post said that "Scruples was born to be a smash bestseller. . . It has more inside information about the worlds of high fashion and Hollywood than you'd find in a dozen manuals." With Scruples, Judith Krantz earned her reputation as a blazingly talented and original storyteller. she takes her readers behind the scenes of wealthy and fame to show them the real people and the real emotions that exist at the core of even the most high-powered lives. Scruples is the leader of her #1 best-selling novels.

"Judith Krantz writes with obvious authority."--John Barkham Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (October 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553284657
• ISBN-13: 978-0553284652
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 1.3 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Original Krantz, still the best (with an update) December 26, 1997

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Judith Krantz is not a writer you read for intellectual stimulation or spiritual enlightenment. But she is still one of the most entertaining mass-market novelists around, especially for women. All of her books feature strong, attractive (on the inside as well as the outside) yet believable women; and the plots are the stuff of modern age fairy tales. Scruples is her first novel, the one that put her on the map and was a smash hit in the late '70s. The heroine, Billy Winthrop Ikehorn (two other surnames follow eventually), may be the least likeable of all her heroines, yet is the most believable perhaps because she is flawed. The plot and settings feel slightly dated, but don't really distract from the pure mindless enjoyment of a "smashing read". One of the big attractions of the Krantz novels are the well-researched and absorbing "inside details" of the settings - of the Beverly Hills retail world, the movie industry and people of a certain class in Paris in the case of Scruples. If you read this book and like it, you'll want to grab all her books; if you hate it, don't bother with any others. I have been buying every single one of her books since Scruples up to her latest, Spring Collection, and hope she continues. They are great for reading in bed or in a hot tub.

(Update added in October 2011)

I just happened to run across this review that I wrote way back in 1997. I recently downloaded the Kindle version in a fit of nostalgia, and re-read it for the first time in at least 10 years. I still enjoyed it, but it does seem a lot more dated now. It is very much a product of its time, the mid to late 1970s (the original publication date is 1978). If you can read it as a work detailing a particular time and place in the past (most of the action is set in and around Beverly Hills, though there are significant portions set in Paris and New York) it almost can be regarded as a work of period fiction. As with any work that was written in the past, you cannot really judget it by current day standards - 1978 looks and sounds a lot more contemporary than say, Jane Austen's time or F. Scott Fitzgerald's time, but it certain is not 2011. (One obvious example is the free and easy attitude towards multiple partner, condomless sex, in an era before AIDS. It's rather quaint and sad in retrospect, and very '70s.) As a look back to the late 1970s and times that preceeded it, it's quite interesting. I am not comparing Judith Krantz to those two celebrated authors as a literary talent by any means, but she was always a highly entertaining chronicler of a very narrow segment of her times in an admittedly shallow, superficial way.

(I am taking off one star mainly because the Kindle edition is just full of odd spellings and even whole missing parts. Did no one proofread the digitized version and compare it with the original? Shame on you, Random House.)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Very poor quality e-book March 24, 2012

By J. Veltsos

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I heard that ABC is developing a series based upon this 1970s novel, I decided to re-read it and refresh my memory. Unfortunately, the quality was so poor that the only way I could follow the story at times was from memory. It looked like the publisher had an intern scan the book and no one proofed the OCR. Punctuation, words, and even paragraphs were missing. Several words were completely misspelled. It wasn't worth even the few dollars I paid for it, so I returned the ebook.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Okay, so it isn't Shakespear July 1, 2003

By alexandra ash

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I don't usually read romance novels - they're all patently predictable and unbelievable and, in most cases, horribly written. My girlfriend read Scruples during the summer that we were both 15, and she made me read it, which I did in one long, hot day, stretched out in a hammock in my backyard. The writing is quite intelligent, humorous, touching, and diverse - Judith Krantz, I quickly learned, likes to educate the reader at odd, unsuspected moments. Odd little tidbits - such as South Carolina produces more fashion models than any other state, and that panties from Juel Park go for $200.00 a paid (or did in 1976). The sex was rather yummy, and kind of ahead of its time (read the glory hole sequence). Yeah, I read it, and yeah, I enjoyed it, and yeah, I read her other books as well. I must admit, this one was my favorite. I still have a copy, and i still re-read it from time to time. Hey, sometimes you just have to appreciate the classics.