What the Lady Wants: A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age

I loved it. What a wonderful story of strength and perseverance I loved learning about the rich history of Chicago

One of the first jobs I ever held was as a salesperson for Marshall Field & Co., in their Evanston branch (just north of Chicago). At the time, all new employees had to undergo three days of training in their flagship State Street branch. I was no stranger to that store. I spent many happy hours wandering around its luxurious interior, looking at things I couldn't afford to buy, and even standing outside in the cold to see their incredible Christmas window displays. Marshall Field's was part of my history, part of the history of Chicago, and a huge chunk of the retail store industry's history. Where I grew up, everyone knew that, respected it and it made us proud*. That's why I knew that a historical fiction novel about this particular woman behind this particular empire-building man was exactly my kind of story. The novel begins with the Great Chicago Fire, and how Delia meets Marshall for the first time, and from there we follow the two and their paths - both separate and together - until Marshall's death. It is, of course, a love story, but one filled with quite a few hardships. To begin with, Marshall Field was married to Nannie Douglas Scott, and two of their children reached adulthood. Dalia Spencer was married to Arthur Caton. After the deaths of Arthur and Nannie, Marshall married Dalia - his "long-time friend," as the papers called them, despite the rumors about an affair between them, which certainly caused a scandal in their day. On the side of commerce, the Chicago Fire wasn't the only disaster that befell both the city and Field's business. These included another major fire, a financial panic that lead to a depression and the rise of the labor unions, which Field opposed. Put these two together, with a heavy dose of conjecture, and that's just the perfect recipe for a rip-roaring historical fiction romance novel, which is exactly what Rosen gives us. With all that information available, Rosen needed to make sure she didn't include too much history and not enough fiction. Thankfully, Rosen shows she knows her stuff, carefully treading that fine line like a professional tightrope walker. That means that Rosen had to put the love affair at the very heart of this story, and then weave everything else around that, even at the expense of some facts going astray. As necessary as this focus is, there was one small section where I think she got a touch carried away with the romance part, which I feel could have been left out of the final version. That said, I did like her idea about how she solved the problem of Nellie Field being suspiciously absent, while Marshall, Delia and Arthur were constantly seen together hobnobbing around Chicago's high society. Rosen achieves all of this with a very simple prose style, which has enough touches of formal language to give us a feel for the era, without sounding archaic. Furthermore, she builds Delia's character with precision so that we cannot help but empathize with her. This also helps us believe how both Arthur and Marshall would fall in love with her. Despite how Rosen shows Marshall's harsher side, in his relationship with Delia he is both charming and endearing, which of course, is exactly why Nellie loved him as well. This leaves Nellie to be the prime antagonist in the story, and Rosen has her play that part with all her might. All told, this book is simply a joy to read from beginning to end. Rosen's style is engaging and era appropriate with elements that made this almost into a page-turner mystery novel. The only small problem was the part of the story that bordered on being too romantic for my taste, but otherwise this novel is hard to fault. Despite my already knowing many of the facts behind this story, I found some non-fictional things that I didn't know anything about, together with some very enjoyable fictional additions. For all of this, I can warmly recommend this novel with four and a half out of five stars. (* To this day, I refuse to walk into a Macy's because when they took over Marshall Field's & Co., they refused to leave the original name on the State Street building, even as "Marshall Field's at Macy's.")

The book touched base on many important figures in Chicago and in our nation. It is beautifully descriptive in many aspects of the era. I thought in covered many emotions in many degrees. An enjoyable read.

A little repetitive and dull: I would have enjoyed more descriptions of the business and Chicago and.events.like.the world.fair. and did she really have no negative views of the free loaders?

For anyone who is a Chicago native and has curiosity about its history, this book is a must. The author clearly did her homework in researching Chicago from the big Chicago fire on forward. For me, a Chicago native, it was a trip down memory lane. I have fond memories of shopping and visiting Marshall Field's as a teenager and young adult, and being amazed by the window displays during the holidays. Wonderful.

I would give this novel four and a half stars, if I could, because it is above average but not quite Tolstoy, yet it deals with serious content and issues of how women and others have been trapped by narrow religious and social judgments, especially in the 19th and early 20th century. The writing is engaging. I never lost interest. And there is compassionate treatment for everyone caught in the trap. It was hard at times to sympathize with this upper class woman and especially her super rich capitalist lover, though there was a nominal attempt to portray the "other side's" point of view (I'm trying to comment without giving the story away here). It's not a serious flaw in the book, though, since those attitudes were prevalent in those days and so it was true to the standards of that class and that time. The book is redeemed and made interesting by the intricate emotional balance and shuffling around "moral" values that no longer stand the test of time.

I’ve long been facinated with the Victorian/Edwardian/Gilded Ages. I’ve read & researched deeply into the British, European & New York (east coast) history of this period. However, though it’s puzzling to me, being a born & bread Chicagoan, I’ve never explored our own gilded age!? This book was as good a story about this period, as any that I have read. It was extremely interesting to read about our own city’s history, from Delia’s perspective. It was so intriguing to know the parts of the city, in which the book took place, as well as the famous names. The plot was just so spellbinding, that at one point I had to check the internet to find out if these events & people had existed. There were the events & the people in the historical recordsl I mean, you truly can’t make up a story, that’s more interesting than what actually happened. I’m so impressed with the level of research, that was needed to write this story. Renee Rosen is an absolutely top notch storyteller! I was hooked & barely put the book down!

If I tell you what What The Lady Wants is about, you might not want to read it. If I’d really known what the book was about, I definitely wouldn’t have read it even thogu I loved Rosen’s other book, White Collar Girl. So, I am pleased to say that this novel of the love affair between department store mogul Marshall Fields and Delia Craton was pretty entertaining! There isn’t much in the way of a plot, rather this is the sordid tale of Delia marrying one man, only to discover her true love is Fields. The author just has a way with her writing that brings her characters and their problems to life. Set against the great fire of Chicago, the time period placed ridiculous restrictions on how people lived their lives so that society would think they were decent. The love story reminded me of a soap opera, with crazy developments that would be considered scandalous even today. With adultery, homosexuality, and murder brimming from the pages, this was a juicy read. I’m so thrilled to have found Renee Rosen, and am eager to read more from her. Please read more of my reviews on my blog: http://fastpageturner.wordpress.com or follow me on twitter at @dana_heyde

I loved this book, the time period, the characters kept one interested, strong lead character honestly I can't wait to read more by her I have told all my friends to read it

I love Renée Rosen ' she's a magnificent writer of historical faction set in the US. I'm a bit distracted at the moment so perhaps that explains the 4 rather than 5*. Normally I devour her books but this took me a while to get into. I'd have liked some more vivid descriptions of the store, its interior and merchandise.