The Chaperone
Laura Moriarty
Jun 2012 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by McGovern Elizabeth
3.5star
2 reviews
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13 hr 14 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Soon to be a feature film from the creators of Downton Abbey starring Elizabeth McGovern, 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.
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.
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3.5
2 reviews
About the author
Laura Moriarty is the author of the national bestseller The Chaperone as well as The Center of Everything, The Rest of Her Life, and While I’m Falling. She received her master's degree from the University of Kansas and was awarded the George Bennett Fellowship for creative writing at Phillips Exeter Academy. Moriarty lives in Lawrence, Kansas.
Elizabeth McGovern is a popular American television, film, and theater actor, and musician. McGovern was born in Evanston, Illinois, and educated at the Juilliard School. McGovern is perhaps best known for her role in in the adaptation of the E.L. Doctorow novel Ragtime, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In addition to success on the big screen, McGovern has gained great acclaim from her performance in the hit series Downton Abbey. She has also appeared in Once Upon a Time in America, Racing with the Moon, Lovesick, The Handmaid's Tale, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and many more.
Elizabeth McGovern is a popular American television, film, and theater actor, and musician. McGovern was born in Evanston, Illinois, and educated at the Juilliard School. McGovern is perhaps best known for her role in in the adaptation of the E.L. Doctorow novel Ragtime, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In addition to success on the big screen, McGovern has gained great acclaim from her performance in the hit series Downton Abbey. She has also appeared in Once Upon a Time in America, Racing with the Moon, Lovesick, The Handmaid's Tale, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and many more.
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