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Imprint: Vintage
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Published: 03/05/2012
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ISBN: 9780099570134
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Length: 320 Pages
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Dimensions: 198mm x 20mm x 129mm
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Weight: 235g
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RRP: £12.99
Beautiful For Ever
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Madame Rachel of Bond Street - Cosmetician, Con-Artist and Blackmailer
A TRUE STORY OF LIES, BEAUTY AND BLACKMAIL IN VICTORIAN LONDON
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Madame Rachel had everything.
A Mayfair address; the title of 'purveyor to Her Majesty the Queen'; a shop full of exotic, expensive creams and potions; and a clientele of the aristocratic, the rich - and the gullible.
Little did they suspect that Madame Rachel had once been a poor fish-fryer in a disease-ridden, grubby corner of Victorian London. Her shop in New Bond Street lured her wealthy clients in their droves, enticed by the promise of eternal beauty. What they found there was a con-woman and fraudster who made a career out of lies, treachery and the desperate hopes of women wanting to be 'beautiful for ever'.
Beautiful For Ever is a thrilling tale of love affairs, scandal, blackmail, high-profile court cases, suicide and fraud, with the extraordinary Madame Rachel right at the centre of it all.
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Imprint: Vintage
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Published: 03/05/2012
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ISBN: 9780099570134
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Length: 320 Pages
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Dimensions: 198mm x 20mm x 129mm
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Weight: 235g
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RRP: £12.99
Reviews
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"A remarkable story... Rappaport handles her scandalous Victorian melodrama with energy and aplomb, and produces a richly entertaining portrait of the seamy side of 19th century society"
Daily Mail
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"Madame Rachel's story, which has been superbly researched by Rappaport, is intriguing in itself [and] sheds a fascinating light on the ladies of Victorian society"
Daily Telegraph
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"Beautiful For Ever is one of those un-put-downable surprises that makes reading worthwhile… This book has the same mix of forensic investigation and light touch that makes Kate Summerscale’s books so interesting"
Big Issue
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"Speaks volumes about vanity and Victorian attitudes to women"
Sophie Morris, Independent
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"[Beautiful For Ever] is, blissfully, proof that there is still simply nothing quite like a good Victorian scandal. Rappaport excels again in this thoroughly researched account of Madame Rachel...this is a well-paced read that tells us something about the modern obsession with appearance while remaining deliciously Victorian at its core"
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
