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The Blurb On The Back:
Welcome to The Barbizon. New York’s premier women-only hotel.
Built in 1927, New York’s Barbizon Hotel was first intended as a home for the ‘Modern Women’ seeking a career in the arts. Over the years its 688 tiny pink ‘highly feminine boudoirs’ housed Sylvia Plath, who fictionalised her time there in The Bell Jar, Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly (notorious for sneaking in men), Joan Didion, Candice Bergen, Charlie’s Angel Jaclyn Smith, Cybil Shepherd, Elaine Stritch, Liza Minnelli, Mona Simpson and a whole host of other writers and actors on the cusp of their careers. Mademoiselle boarded its summer interns there - perfectly turned out young women, who would never be spotted hatless - as did Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School its students - in their white-gloves and kitten heels - and the Ford Modelling Agency its young models.
Not everyone who passed through the Barbizon’s doors was destined for greatness - for some it was a story of dashed hopes and expectations - but from the Jazz Age New Women of the 1920s, to the Liberated Women of the 1960s, until 1981 when the first men checked in, The Barbizon was a place where women could stand up and be counted.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Paulina Bren is professor of international studies, gender and media at Vassar College who uses The Barbizon (a women-only hotel which opened in 1927 and only welcomed men in 1981) as the background to this gadfly look at the social changes that women went through during this period. However, it’s very white middle class and bounces around between women while ultimately only telling me things I already knew about the hypocrisies of the period.
THE BARBIZON: THE NEW YORK HOTEL THAT SET WOMEN FREE was released in the United Kingdom on 18th March 2021. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Built in 1927, New York’s Barbizon Hotel was first intended as a home for the ‘Modern Women’ seeking a career in the arts. Over the years its 688 tiny pink ‘highly feminine boudoirs’ housed Sylvia Plath, who fictionalised her time there in The Bell Jar, Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly (notorious for sneaking in men), Joan Didion, Candice Bergen, Charlie’s Angel Jaclyn Smith, Cybil Shepherd, Elaine Stritch, Liza Minnelli, Mona Simpson and a whole host of other writers and actors on the cusp of their careers. Mademoiselle boarded its summer interns there - perfectly turned out young women, who would never be spotted hatless - as did Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School its students - in their white-gloves and kitten heels - and the Ford Modelling Agency its young models.
Not everyone who passed through the Barbizon’s doors was destined for greatness - for some it was a story of dashed hopes and expectations - but from the Jazz Age New Women of the 1920s, to the Liberated Women of the 1960s, until 1981 when the first men checked in, The Barbizon was a place where women could stand up and be counted.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Paulina Bren is professor of international studies, gender and media at Vassar College who uses The Barbizon (a women-only hotel which opened in 1927 and only welcomed men in 1981) as the background to this gadfly look at the social changes that women went through during this period. However, it’s very white middle class and bounces around between women while ultimately only telling me things I already knew about the hypocrisies of the period.
THE BARBIZON: THE NEW YORK HOTEL THAT SET WOMEN FREE was released in the United Kingdom on 18th March 2021. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
