Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
Publication
Fawcett (1985), Mass Market Paperback
Description
Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML: Dinah Slade is a young Englishwoman of immense vitality, great sensual power, and fierce ambition. When the handsome and powerful Paul Van Zale commits the imprudence of falling in love with her, her life and desires become intertwined with the fate of his great American banking family. Among the new acquaintances she makes is Paul's wife, with whom, much to Dinah's shock and dismay, Paul manages an almost perfect marriage. The characters' lives are intertwined with such mastery that listeners will be captivated with The Rich Are Different from the very first word until the astonishing climax..
User reviews
LibraryThing member N.W.Moors
Susan Howatch is one of my favorite historical fiction authors along with Sharon Kay Penman and M.M. Kaye. I've read Penmarric, Cashelmara, and yes, The Rich Are Different several times along with her other works. I'm always amazed at this book by how well the stories of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra,
None of the characters are especially heroic but they do stay true to their historical natures, despite the setting being investment banks for Rome and an English manor house for Eygpt. The book has different POVs, mainly Paul (Julius Caesar), Dinah (Cleopatra), Steve (Mark Antony), and Cornelius (Octavian), with one other being Sylvia (Calpurnia), Paul's wife. They each provide a unique perspective to the story and each other. There is also exhaustive, well-researched detail on world events from the Roaring Twenties to the beginning of WWII.
The Rich Are Different is historical fiction at its best, and a book well-worth rereading.
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Mark Antony, and Octavian Augustus fit in with the post-WWI era of boom and depression. This time the reread had special resonance with the failures on Wall Street today.None of the characters are especially heroic but they do stay true to their historical natures, despite the setting being investment banks for Rome and an English manor house for Eygpt. The book has different POVs, mainly Paul (Julius Caesar), Dinah (Cleopatra), Steve (Mark Antony), and Cornelius (Octavian), with one other being Sylvia (Calpurnia), Paul's wife. They each provide a unique perspective to the story and each other. There is also exhaustive, well-researched detail on world events from the Roaring Twenties to the beginning of WWII.
The Rich Are Different is historical fiction at its best, and a book well-worth rereading.
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LibraryThing member elena.shek
Terrific read. Exposes the idea of a woman at the center of a man's world.
LibraryThing member revslick
Howatch's novels at first seem like generic pulp, but within the first 50 pages the words pull you into a living story filled with so much more than generic pulp. The story is told from the viewpoint of six overlapping characters. She gives a glimpse of men and women driven by greed, pride, love,
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lust, and the need to be liked. If you know your history, pay close attention to the details because I believe she has compiled a fabulous 1920s version of Caesar and Cleopatra. Show Less
LibraryThing member christinejoseph
Dinah Slade was young enough to be Paul Van Zale's daughter. But she didn't care. She was a very ambitious and beautiful woman with her eye on Van Zale's tremendous fortune. However, she hadn't counted on falling in love. Paul found himself attracted to Dinah in a way he had long forgotten. Her
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vitality, her sensuality, consumed him. With her he could forget his past, his wife, his enemies, his empire.... Show Less
LibraryThing member SueinCyprus
Dinah, an ambitious but impoverished young woman, propositions Paul, a rich American banker, in the hope of saving her family property. The book takes place in both the UK and USA, revolving around high finance and business. Fast-moving, tough characters, and well-woven plots with a fairly
When I first read this in 2000 I concluded that it was not really my kind of book. In a sense that's still true - the banking and high finance life of the early 20th century isn't my scene.
But what a very well-written book it is; re-reading it, I was just as gripped as I was the first time, and also more appreciative of the characterisation, and the clever way the author has used the historical stories of Caesar and Mark Anthony as the basis for this amazing novel.
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satisfying ending. When I first read this in 2000 I concluded that it was not really my kind of book. In a sense that's still true - the banking and high finance life of the early 20th century isn't my scene.
But what a very well-written book it is; re-reading it, I was just as gripped as I was the first time, and also more appreciative of the characterisation, and the clever way the author has used the historical stories of Caesar and Mark Anthony as the basis for this amazing novel.
Show Less
Subjects
Original publication date
1977
Physical description
6.8 inches
ISBN
0449207706 / 9780449207703