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459th out of 1,065 books
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1,141 voters
The Rich Are Different (Van Zale #1)
Dinah Slade was young enough to be Paul Van Zale's daughter. But she didn't care. She was a very ambitious and beautiful woman with her eye on Van Zale's tremendous fortune. However, she hadn't counted on falling in love. Paul found himself attracted to Dinah in a way he had long forgotten. Her vitality, her sensuality, consumed him. With her he could forget his past, his...more
Mass Market Paperback
Published
July 12th 1983
by Fawcett
(first published March 15th 1977)
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This book sucked me in. It took place during the post-WWI economic boom and crisis, and continued to WWII. It mirrored the lives of Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Mark Antony, but it took place on Wall Street and in London. It was so creatively done that I didn't realize until I was half-way through it that the story sounded familiar. This was a dream for me as a student of history because of the constant references to historical events and people. I found each character interesting bec...more
England, 1922. Wealthy New York banker Paul Van Zale decides to entertain himself by investing in Dinah Slade's cosmetics enterprise. Despite the great difference in their ages, the two begin an affair, but Paul's past *sins* eventually call him back to his wife and the cut-throat world of Wall Street (and maybe a gangster or two).
I'm in a bit of a review slump and not up to a full blown recap of events, so I'm keeping this short and sweet. Paul and Dinah have plenty of ups and downs and dirty...more
I'm in a bit of a review slump and not up to a full blown recap of events, so I'm keeping this short and sweet. Paul and Dinah have plenty of ups and downs and dirty...more
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Own.
I love Susan Howatch's writing. What beautiful sentences she writes! Her stories are intriguing and hold together - despite their unbelievability at times. (Probably because they're based on true stories) She is amazing at giving voices to her character-narrators. They all sound different. She helps the reader see events from different perspectives and feel sympathy with opposing viewpoints all while moving the plot along at a can't put the book down speed.
The Rich Are Different is the story...more
I love Susan Howatch's writing. What beautiful sentences she writes! Her stories are intriguing and hold together - despite their unbelievability at times. (Probably because they're based on true stories) She is amazing at giving voices to her character-narrators. They all sound different. She helps the reader see events from different perspectives and feel sympathy with opposing viewpoints all while moving the plot along at a can't put the book down speed.
The Rich Are Different is the story...more
My sister had great fun mocking the title of this - which may indeed be the worst title ever - but I knew that Susan Howatch does not write just another trashy book. Her novels are retellings of historical couples set in a more modern era (I don't know my ancient Roman history, which apparently this one mimics). Another thing Howatch always does is shifting narrative perspectives - each of half a dozen major characters narrate a good chunk of the book. After you've been in someone's head like th...more
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I've read this book when I was 20 or so, then again when I was in my 30's and just re-read it again in my 40's. There's just something about this story... and I pick up different things I didn't notice before, or didn't understand, on every reading. I just recently relized that it mirrors the story of Cleopatra, Julius Ceasar and Mark Antony, but set in the 1900's. Love it. Wish the author picked a different title, it very misleading.
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Howatch's novels at first seem like generic pulp, but within the first 50 pages the words pull you into a living story filled with so much more than generic pulp. The story is told from the viewpoint of six overlapping characters. She gives a glimpse of men and women driven by greed, pride, love, lust, and the need to be liked. If you know your history, pay close attention to the details because I believe she has compiled a fabulous 1920s version of Caesar and Cleopatra.
Couldn't put it down-- read all 700+ pages in two nights. It's a grand soap opera of a story, just what I needed this winter. Not Howatch's best, and you can tell some of her signature psychological character development tricks are still figuring themselves out-- but as soon as I finished, I bought the sequel and read that in three nights.
I remember reading this when it was first published in the early 1980s and loving it, then recommending to bookmobile patrons for years. I never read the other long tomes by Howatch although I own a couple of the paperbacks, but decided the print is a little small for my aging eyes so was happy to see they are now in e-book format.
Dinah, an ambitious but impoverished young woman, propositions Paul, a rich American banker, in the hope of saving her family property. The book takes place in both the UK and USA, revolving around high finance and business. Fast-moving, tough characters, and well-woven plots with a fairly satisfying ending.
When I first read this in 2000 I concluded that it was not really my kind of book. In a sense that's still true - the banking and high finance life of the early 20th century isn't my scene....more
When I first read this in 2000 I concluded that it was not really my kind of book. In a sense that's still true - the banking and high finance life of the early 20th century isn't my scene....more
Susan Howatch got the money brokers of the world spot on in this novel. Read it after the financial meltdown of the 80's and although it is about the financial world of a century ago it is just as relevant today. A must read.
Great author.........these epic stories are her early writing. Her later work is on the Anglica Church
Haven't re-read this since my initial read when it came out in 1977 - since I enjoyed my recent re-read of PENMARRIC, I'm continuing in Howatch-mode - Caesar, Cleopatra and Marc Antony transported to the world of high finance in New York and London in the years between the two World Wars.
February 25th: I set it aside several weeks ago, after about 200 pages - I just couldn't take Howatch's lady-romance writing style any longer, and the character of Paul Van Zale, who believed marriage to be more...more
February 25th: I set it aside several weeks ago, after about 200 pages - I just couldn't take Howatch's lady-romance writing style any longer, and the character of Paul Van Zale, who believed marriage to be more...more
Loved how this story, set in 1920's America and 1930's England mirrored Roman History.
I read this book in high school and enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed it the second time as well, perhaps for different, more mature reasons. It is a light and easy read, but yet is not too fluffy, with a good dose of well-researched historical information. Themes of ambition, greed, and adultery kept my interest level high as well as a set of interesting characters and moral dilemmas.
One of her best books based on a powerful banking family.
Read as part of a series. Enjoyed this family saga.
Loved it and its sequel Sins of the Fathers.
An intruiging American story of a young man ( Cornelius Van Zyl)who grew up from the depths of poverty through a fight of epilepsy and poverty to become one of America's leading Bankers during the early 20th Century.It also cuts acrross to London where whilst working at the Londin office and after a perceived victory over his incurable illness( epilepsy) he falls for a young ambitious lady known as Dina Slade...... A story of fidelity, family inheritence, ambition and conspiracy amongst the rich...more
Read back in the '80s.
I enjoyed this series very much.
4 1/2 stars
Feb 15, 2013
Jackie
added it
Excellent read. Can't wait to read the next one...Sins of the Fathers.
These are older books...I so much better than most of the stuff written today.
These are older books...I so much better than most of the stuff written today.
I read this one first at some point in the eighties and then carried it to our mountain cabin where later I re-read it. When we sold the cabin twenty years later this was one of the books which were donated to charity. I recall it being just okay and not much else.
I really loved this book. Amazing depth of character! I thoroughly enjoyed the way the narrators changed. It really made me feel empathy towards character -- even those I didn't particularly like. I will definitely read it again.
Feb 04, 2013
Tamara
rated it
4 of 5 stars
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review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
kindle
First read this in the mid-70's. It is still a good story and has held up well. Kept my interest even when I figured out how it would end.
Mostly, the rich are just much more appealing and self-entitled. But in some books, they're easier to love, too.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Oct 07, 2011
Mary Scott
added it
Had to give up on this book - just did not hold my interest enough to make me persevere.
Very good story, I hated Cornelius.
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Howatch, Susan
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Susan Howatch (b. 1940) is a British novelist who has penned bestselling mysteries, family sagas, and other novels. Howatch was born in Surrey, England. She began writing as a teen and published her first book when she moved to the United States in 1964. Howatch found global success first with her five sagas and then with her novels about the Church of England in the twentieth century. She has now...more
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updated Oct 19, 2012 04:49pm