I enjoy the historical novels that have one foot in fact and the other firmly in fiction. If you never enjoyed history in school, this is often a great way to learn a little about history...with one eye open of course - it is after all a fictional book.
This is a fabulous story about the monied lives of those who create those wonderful giant department stores - this one Marhsall Fields.
There's a good backstory of the Great Chicago Fire and then the city rising again like a Phoenix from the flames, bringing all the wealth and sparkle...........and pain...with it.
A nice book to sink into for a while and imagine a different way of life.
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Book Description:
What the Lady Wants
NAL
November 4, 2014
In late 19th century Chicago, visionary retail tycoon Marshall Field made his fortune wooing women customers with his famous motto: “Give the lady what she wants.”
His legendary charm also won the heart of socialite Delia Spencer, and led to an infamous love affair.
The night of the Great Fire, as seventeen-year-old Delia watched the flames rise and consume what had been the pioneer town of Chicago, she couldn’t imagine how much her life, her city, and her whole world was about to change. Nor would she have guessed that the agent of that change would not simply be the fire, but more so the man she met that night…
Leading the way in rebuilding after the fire, Marshall Field reopens his well-known dry goods store and transforms it into something the world has never seen before: a glamorous palace of a department store. He and his powerhouse coterie— including Potter Palmer and George Pullman—usher in the age of robber barons, the American royalty of their generation.
But behind the opulence, their private lives are riddled with scandal and heartbreak. Delia and Marshall first turn to each other out of loneliness, but as their love deepens, they will stand together despite disgrace and ostracism, through an age of devastation and opportunity, when an adolescent Chicago was transformed into the Gleaming White City of the Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893.