The Chaperone

By: Laura Moriarty

Narrated by: McGovern Elizabeth

Made into a feature film by the creators of Downton Abbey, The Chaperone is a New York Times-bestselling novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in the 1920s and the summer that would change them both.

Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.

For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s, ’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers, and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.

Critic reviews

“It’s impossible not to be completely drawn in by The Chaperone. Laura Moriarty has delivered the richest and realest possible heroine in Cora Carlisle, a Wichita housewife who has her mind and heart blown wide open, and steps—with uncommon courage—into the fullness of her life. What a beautiful book. I loved every page.”—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

“What a charming, mesmerizing, transporting novel! The characters are so fully realized that I felt I was right there alongside them. A beautiful clarity marks both the style and structure of The Chaperone.”—Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife and Adam & Eve

“The Chaperone is the best kind of historical fiction, transporting you to another time and place, but even more importantly delivering a poignant story about people so real, you'll miss and remember them long after you close the book.”—Jenna Blum, author of Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers

Nice yarn, excellent narration or rather acting.

What made the experience of listening to The Chaperone the most enjoyable?

The narrator. Pitch perfect.

What other book might you compare The Chaperone to and why?

This summer - "Beautiful Ruins" as it is a memoir involving real people from a specific time and place as well.

What about Elizabeth McGovern’s performance did you like?

Everything. She was perfectly suited to the part. She gets the priggishness, the hilarity, the self discovery tucked into her tone of voice and pronunciation (sic?)...she's great.

If you could rename The Chaperone, what would you call it?

Summer with Louise

Well written, well read!

Love this book. Didn't go the direction I expected. Enjoyed seeing Cora grow as a person throughout. Funny hearing Elizabeth McGovern say Cora, when she played a Cora for so long on DA.

Excellent, Low Key, Yet Mesmerizing Performance

by Elizabeth McGovern. Great story, excellent plot and character development. You won't be disappointed. Go for it!

Pleasant Enough

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend it as relatively light fiction. The story doesn't really have an enormous amount of depth, though it is diverting enough.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Ho Hum.

Have you listened to any of Elizabeth McGovern’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is the first audio book I have heard by Ms. McGovern, and she does an excellent job.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Cora's meeting with her biological mother.

Any additional comments?

I'm not sure that the story wouldn't have worked just as well without Louise Brooks. She didn't really add anything.

Wonderful listen!

What made the experience of listening to The Chaperone the most enjoyable?

Laura Moriarity's writing style keeps the listener engaged by using all her writerly tools. She grounds you in the minutia of a leaf falling and then expands outward into the social situation that our "Chaperone" finds herself in.

It's a really great listen, especially if you know the history of the 20th Century, which the book uses spectacularly well! Eleizabeth McGorvern's performance rocks!

Beautifully narrated, excellent writing

I am absolutely IN LOVE with this book. Elizabeth McGovern is an INCREDIBLE narrator and now, I'm just sad that there isn't a huge selection of books narrated by her, because she really made the story come to life. Cora's evolution is really beautiful, and I appreciate how the civil humanity issues alive and well in our nation today are discussed in this period piece, and in such a realistic way. I've sat on this book for a while and the first chapter didn't get me so I stopped listening. I could kick myself now. I picked it back up a few days ago, and I couldn't put it down! This book is so poised, so moving, so poignant. I love love love it! Well worth your credit, and more than worth the 13 hours of listening. Two thumbs up!

A full life, detailed and defined

Very entertaining, well researched and beautifully read. Ms. Moriarty's style translate well, aloud, and Ms. McGovern's clear, pleasing voice and east to follow accents made this work a delightful accompaniment to a day of unpacking!

Twists and turns through history.

It was an unexpected story of how we learn to adapt, consider the unconsiderable, and learn that love, patience , and kindness ultimately heal.

Wonderful book!

This is a well written and lovely story. We forget how difficult it was for women alone at the beginning of the twentieth century to forge a life for themselves. The main character in the book Cora shows us the strength and abdominable spirit of what one woman can do. Although orphaned as a child and then living in a loveless marriage she struggles through bitter disappointments to find happiness. Due to society's norms of not accepting homosexuality or divorce she lives a very unorthodox life for the times and yet she endears herself to us time and again because of her choices and how she fights for them. It was sad to say good bye to Cora but she will linger in my thoughts for a long time.

Loved the story and the narrator!

I absolutely love Elizabeth McGovern...her voice is like velvet, and after listening to this book it made me want to have a Kansas accent! I was surprised that the book was more about Cora rather than Louise, but after thinking about it, duh, the title of the book is "The Chaperone". Either way I was thoroughly entertained by both characters. I saw that many reviewers thought the book lost its appeal after Cora returned to Kansas, but I didn't feel that way at all. I wanted to know how everything in her life would change after what she learned in New York. I didn't want the book to end, and it was so good, I listened to it twice, and that is not something I often do. Get this book, you won't be disappointed!!