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The Beneficiary
- Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father
- Narrated by: Janny Scott
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
"[A] poignant addition to the literature of moneyed glamour and its inevitable tarnish and decay...like something out of Fitzgerald or Waugh." (The New Yorker)
A parable for the new age of inequality: part family history, part detective story, part history of a vanishing class, and a vividly compelling exploration of the degree to which an inheritance - financial, cultural, genetic - conspired in one person's self-destruction.
Land, houses, and money tumbled from one generation to the next on the 800-acre estate built by Scott's investment banker great-grandfather on Philadelphia's Main Line. There was an obligation to protect it, a license to enjoy it, a duty to pass it on - but it was impossible to know in advance how all that extraordinary good fortune might influence the choices made over a lifetime.
In this warmly felt tale of an American family's fortunes, journalist Janny Scott excavates the rarefied world that shaped her charming, unknowable father, Robert Montgomery Scott, and provides an incisive look at the weight of inheritance, the tenacity of addiction, and the power of buried secrets.
Some beneficiaries flourished, like Scott's grandmother, Helen Hope Scott, a socialite and celebrated horsewoman said to have inspired Katherine Hepburn's character in the play and Academy Award-winning film The Philadelphia Story. For others, including the author's father, she concludes, the impact was more complex.
Bringing her journalistic talents, light touch, and crystalline prose to this powerful story of a child's search to understand a parent's puzzling end, Scott also raises questions about our new Gilded Age. New fortunes are being amassed, new estates are being born. Does anyone wonder how it will all play out, 100 years hence?
Critic Reviews
"Flair is in the DNA. As attentive to outré details as to psychological turmoil, Scott makes the most of the suspense built into her story. Her father, having promised Scott in her 20s that she would inherit his many diaries, made her hunt long and hard for them after his death in 2005. The bequest was brilliant: A man in unhappy thrall to a place lured his daughter further and further in - and she escaped with priceless insight into its, and his, hidden depths." (The Atlantic)
"Fascinating for the painful personal legacies it uncovers. At the same time, it is also compelling for the parallels it draws between an earlier age of inequality and our own and the questions it raises about how contemporary stories of new-rich families 'will play out, one hundred years hence.'" (Kirkus Reviews)
"Compulsively readable...a rare combination of wit, empathy, candor, and shrewd sleuthing, [The Beneficiary] is a multigenerational story that encompasses the Gilded Age, great wealth and two World Wars, suicide and secret affairs, hidden diaries and the life-long impact of alcohol. The world of wealth and privilege Scott recreates so vividly may be hard for the rest of us to imagine, but everyone will recognize the flawed but fascinating human beings at its heart. Not to be missed.” (Geoffrey C. Ward, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning, Pulitzer Prize-finalist A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, 1905-1928)
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What listeners say about The Beneficiary
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- NFox
- 06-08-19
Buy A Hard Copy
I have been fascinated by Androsson from the minute I realized “The Philadelphia Story” was based on Hope Scott. I heard about this book listening to a WHYY podcast interview with Janny Scott.
This is a large family. Janny Scott’s voice is clear and easy to listen to. However, on regular speed, she reads so quickly it is difficult to absorb details. Slowing the speed down makes it a very unpleasant listening experience.
I intend to buy a hard copy of this book. I am hoping it is loaded with photos.
I expect i would give the paper version of this story five stars. It just does not translate well as an audiobook.
6 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 05-09-19
Historical and timely
This book is an interesting intersection of American history, family memoir, and a case study of wealth and its influence across generations. The author strikes a commendable tone of objectivity in sharing her family's gilded age roots and patrician story. She is also an engaging narrator and made the material more intimate and accessible. I enjoyed the book.
6 people found this helpful
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- W. Buchanan
- 04-19-19
Remarkable Story!
I purchased the audio version of this book on a hunch. That hunch turned out correct!
First, the story is very well written. Second Ms. Scott's narration performance was spot on perfect. Lastly, I have lived on Mount Desert Island, Maine for 35 years; where the Scott family had owned a "summer cottage" for several years. Each summer, my wife interacts with one of the Scott family members.
All of the above unfolded as a delightful surprise, based on a hunch!
I am going to listen to the story again!
4 people found this helpful
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- Wiggie Dog
- 05-24-19
Great Read
Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
3 people found this helpful
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- Nicholas H. Ryan
- 06-17-22
A glorious adventure through the lives of privileged
Janny tells a story that ignites the imagination with personalities revealed through a family history that mirrors the rise and fall of American successes. She honestly reveals foibles that others might bury, and leaves us with an affection for her father that touches the heart. You will come to love Robert, Hope, Edgar, and the multitude of people who inhabited Ardrossan Farms as that gilded age slipped away. That the Montgomerys staved off reality and lived a grand life well beyond their peers is a testament to an ambition and adherence to principle in short supply. Partake in this journey, Janny is meticulous and enticing in her telling - you will come to love every moment as if they were your own family.
1 person found this helpful
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- Theresa Sage
- 05-10-19
Thank you!
Thank you for the brutally honest story of your family, told in an intimate yet objective tone.
1 person found this helpful
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- Eileen Cecilia
- 02-04-23
Boring
Wealthy people creating their own problems and tiring to alcohol. Sad consequences for all involved
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- Anonymous User
- 01-22-23
Engaging History
This is an engaging history of an era of style and wealth many of us have only glimpsed but now can satisfy curiosity through Ms. Scott’s forthright account of her family’s and her own experiences. This is particularly gratifying if the reader has connections to Philadelphia and environs.
The author's narration is as engaging as her literary style. I appreciate her having shared so personally.
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- Privatebuyer
- 04-01-22
He was admired by so many
What a wonderful book. You gave us a wonderful sense of the personalities in your family. I appreciate how you have woven the landscape changes and social changes over time together. Not all sweetness and light. No made for Hollywood sunsets either.
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- Marietta Peskin
- 06-10-21
Well written but
the topic of this Philadelphia main line family was boring. I thought something might happen; it didn't. I returned it.
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Story
In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, DC, to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain - a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which, according to CDC definitions, does not actually exist.
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Excellent!!
- By D on 11-09-21
By: Ross Douthat
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Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger
- A Memoir
- By: Lisa Donovan
- Narrated by: Lisa Donovan
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Noted chef and James Beard Award-winning essayist Lisa Donovan helped establish some of the South's most important kitchens, and her pastry work is at the forefront of a resurgence in traditional desserts. Yet Donovan struggled to make a living in an industry where male chefs built successful careers on the stories, recipes, and culinary heritage passed down from generations of female cooks and cooks of color. Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger is Donovan's searing, beautiful, and searching chronicle of reclaiming her own story and the narrative of the women who came before her.
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I can see why Dave Chang raved about this book
- By Clare on 08-31-20
By: Lisa Donovan
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The Cartiers
- The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire
- By: Francesca Cartier Brickell
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
- Length: 23 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Cartiers is the revealing tale of a jewelry dynasty - four generations, from revolutionary France to the 1970s. At its heart are the three Cartier brothers whose motto was "Never copy, only create" and who made their family firm internationally famous in the early days of the 20th century, thanks to their unique and complementary talents. Francesca Cartier Brickell, whose great-grandfather was the youngest of the brothers, has traveled the world researching her family’s history, discovering long-lost pieces of the puzzle along the way.
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Wonderful Experience to Listen to This Story
- By BB on 01-12-20
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I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise
- A Life of Bunny Mellon
- By: Mac Griswold
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Bunny Mellon, whose life was marked by astonishing good fortune as well as tragedy and scandal, remains a singular figure in the annals of American design. She had her finger on the pulse of American culture and possessed a rare sense of style and grace. Her most celebrated work—the White House Rose Garden—demonstrated how formal restraint and the sparing use of color could be deployed to maximal effect.
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Some sparks on a mostly dull account
- By Paula de la Cruz on 02-21-23
By: Mac Griswold
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Thanks for Waiting
- The Joy (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer
- By: Doree Shafrir
- Narrated by: Doree Shafrir
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In her debut memoir, Doree Shafrir explores the enormous pressures we feel, especially as women, to hit certain milestones at certain times and how we can redefine what it means to be a late bloomer. She writes about everything from dating to infertility, to how friendships evolve as you get older, to why being pregnant at 41 is unexpectedly freeing - all with the goal of appreciating the lives we've lived so far and the lives we still hope to live.
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Terrible
- By Masha N on 07-31-21
By: Doree Shafrir
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I Want You to Know We're Still Here
- A Post-Holocaust Memoir
- By: Esther Safran Foer
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer, Esther Safran Foer
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt but never discussed. The result was a childhood marked by painful silences and continued tragedy. Even as she built a successful career, married, and raised three children, Esther always felt herself searching.
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Interesting but…
- By mk on 08-23-21
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The Deep Places
- A Memoir of Illness and Discovery
- By: Ross Douthat
- Narrated by: Ross Douthat
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, DC, to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain - a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which, according to CDC definitions, does not actually exist.
-
-
Excellent!!
- By D on 11-09-21
By: Ross Douthat
-
Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger
- A Memoir
- By: Lisa Donovan
- Narrated by: Lisa Donovan
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Noted chef and James Beard Award-winning essayist Lisa Donovan helped establish some of the South's most important kitchens, and her pastry work is at the forefront of a resurgence in traditional desserts. Yet Donovan struggled to make a living in an industry where male chefs built successful careers on the stories, recipes, and culinary heritage passed down from generations of female cooks and cooks of color. Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger is Donovan's searing, beautiful, and searching chronicle of reclaiming her own story and the narrative of the women who came before her.
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I can see why Dave Chang raved about this book
- By Clare on 08-31-20
By: Lisa Donovan
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I Forgot to Die
- By: Khalil Rafati
- Narrated by: Khalil Rafati
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Khalil Rafati went to Los Angeles in the 1990s and had it all. He was working with Hollywood movie stars and legendary rock musicians, but it wasn't long before he found his way into the dark underbelly of the City of Angels. When he hit rock bottom-addicted to heroin and cocaine, overtaken by paranoia and psychosis, written off by his friends and family - he grabbed a shovel and kept digging. So how does someone with nothing, who feels like they deserve nothing, and who just wants to end it all turn their life around?
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Jails, Institutions & (almost) Death
- By Courtney on 05-25-17
By: Khalil Rafati
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Curse of Riches
- By: Claire Prentice
- Narrated by: Claire Prentice, Hillary Huber
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When journalist and author of The Lost Tribe of Coney Island Claire Prentice set eyes on a story about a millionaire dog one day, she never could have predicted the rabbit hole it would lead her down. After six years and countless hours spent combing through letters, diaries, telegrams, and legal testimony, Prentice has produced the definitive story of the Wendels, New York City’s richest, most elusive real estate family.
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Great story
- By Sarah Curtright on 03-20-23
By: Claire Prentice
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Ninth Street Women
- Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
- By: Mary Gabriel
- Narrated by: Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 40 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times). Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of 20th-century abstract painting - not as muses but as artists.
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Painful pronunciation issues!
- By Curious Reader on 05-20-19
By: Mary Gabriel
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Capote's Women
- A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era
- By: Laurence Leamer
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
New York Times best-selling author Laurence Leamer reveals the complex web of relationships and scandalous true stories behind Truman Capote's never-published final novel, Answered Prayers - the dark secrets, tragic glamour, and Capote's ultimate betrayal of the group of female friends he called his "swans".
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You need to know a bit about the players
- By Etoile NEOhio on 12-30-21
By: Laurence Leamer
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The Nine
- The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany
- By: Gwen Strauss
- Narrated by: Julie Stevenson
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Nine follows the true story of the author’s great aunt Hélène Podliasky, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labor camp and made a 10-day journey across the front lines of World War II from Germany back to Paris. Drawing on incredible research, this powerful, heart-stopping narrative is a moving tribute to the power of humanity and friendship in the darkest of times.
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Important Story
- By JAL on 05-28-21
By: Gwen Strauss
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The Social Graces
- By: Renée Rosen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
1876. In the glittering world of Manhattan's upper crust, women are valued by their pedigree, dowry, and, most importantly, connections. They have few rights and even less independence - what they do have is society. The more celebrated the hostess, the more powerful the woman. And none is more powerful than Caroline Astor - the Mrs. Astor.
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Disappointing Effort
- By HistoryNerd on 05-11-21
By: Renée Rosen