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High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly |  | Author: Donald Spoto M.A. Ph.D.
Creator: George K. Wilson
Publisher: Tantor Media
List Price: $69.99
Buy New: $41.99
as of 3/21/2010 02:43 CDT details
You Save: $28.00 (40%)
New (10) Used (3) from $41.99
Seller: pbshop
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 4973801
Format: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged,Library - Unabridged CD
Number Of Items: 8
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 6.5 x 1
ISBN: 1400145112
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9781400145119
ASIN: 1400145112
Publication Date: January 2, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Drawing on his unprecedented access to Grace Kelly, bestselling biographer Donald Spoto at last offers an intimate, honest, and authoritative portrait of one of Hollywood's legendary actresses.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 Tells you nothing about the life of Grace Kelly--don't bother February 3, 2010
Wallaby (Flint Hills)
I'm very glad I read this for free from the library. There is nothing about Grace Kelly here that we didnt' already know from the newspaper articles from her death. I would be surprised if Mr. Spoto interviewed anyone who knew the Princess.
I did not need to know every boring detail about the plots and filming of her movies. The woman was royalty, but you would never know from this book if she participated in any palace activities or even met other royalty. I was interested in her life, her cares, children, aspirations and relationships. Don't look for any of that here, you will not find it. This is only the very superficial information
High Society December 19, 2009
Eileen R. Maguire (Jacksonville, Florida)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a thorough examination of the professional life of Grace Kelly. There is little new information concerning her private life, and the one flaw I would consider is the rehashing of the plot lines of each film. I wished for more details about the star herself. I did read it in two sittings, which says much about the talented author.
 Interesting take on Princess Grace December 6, 2009
Chris Finklein (Warrenton, OR USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have probably read most of the books written on Grace ever since her untimely death in 1982. I never expected to read new information but within these pages I found much. It's well written with details that intrigue. Interesting takes on the plot lines of her movies and what she hoped to accomplish with her career as she undertook each role.
This is a must read for any Princess Grace fan. I found many of her ideas and actions completely understandable, making a lot of sense in view of some of the many accusations that have been made since her death. It was believable and real to comprehend her marriage, her wishes for her lost career in Hollywood and yet her desires as a mother and wife. It was a treat to read and absorb.
 Not up to Spoto's usual standard November 20, 2009
Richard A. Jenkins (Washington, DC USA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Celebrity biographies are one of my favorite junk foods. Genre writing often means bad prose or poor research, and celebrity bios are often the worst offenders. Donald Spoto usually has been an exception, with meticulous research and well reasoned debunking of the kind of scandal that often sells the lesser of these books. Unfortunately, "High Society" appears to be a "clip job" and an instance of Spoto being a little too close to his subject. The book seems to draw a lot on leftovers from Spoto's past research on Alfred Hitchcock and his films. Spoto admits to a great deal of closeness with Kelly and he seems over eager to give her life and talent too many benefits of the doubt. Kelly's reign as princess gets a relatively short shrift. OTOH, the book does a good job of debunking myths about Kelly and her family, who were comfortable lace curtain Irish, rather than up from the bootstraps laborers and provides depth regarding her career and her lack of love for Hollywood, as well as her usually under appreciated stage work. The book plausibly (most of the time) debunks a number of Kelly's purported affairs without assuming that she had been virginal before marrying Prince Ranier. Spoto highlights Kelly's place in the realm of "cool blonds", although he is too Hitchcock-centric in his consideration of this now forgotten kind of mid-century elegance and sophistication (in contrast to "dumb blonds" like those played by Marilyn Monroe and imitators like Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren), that Kelly helped Americanize. The "cool blonds" later included television performers like Inger Stevens (who was Clairol's pitch woman for blond hair coloring) and the persona brushed off on Doris Day's later still-virginal roles and the later years of Donna Reed's television character. The counter culture and changing styles had more to do with the demise of the "cool blond" than Hitchcock's failure to find another as perfect as Grace Kelly. So, on balance, the book is a quick and mostly pleasant read, but one that pulls punches, is uneven in its analysis and seems particularly weak with regard to Kelly's later years.
Mostly about her movies. November 12, 2009
Jill Meyer (Santa Fe, NM)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Donald Spoto's new biography of Grace Kelly is a well-written account of Kelly's life, with a special emphasis on her acting career. He bookends his solid accounts of her films, Broadway, and television work with info about her private life. I think most readers of Spoto's book will have already read other biographies of her entire life and so not mind the emphasis on her career.
Spoto's a good writer. He had a long-term friendship with Kelly and she talked to him over the years about her life and career, asking only that he wait twenty-five years to publish what she told him. The book seems restrained about her private life - particularly because other biographers have written about her supposedly voracious propensity to have affairs with her leading men. Spoto writes that most of the speculation about her sex life is just that - speculation - and was not true in most cases.
Spoto's obvious regard for his subject does not extend to fawning over her. Because he was concentrating on her career, I think it was easy for him to avoid making conjectures about her private life. I read the book in one sitting - it's not long - and came away with a very good appreciation of her career.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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