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Jun 01, 2009

Jessica rated it:

So after a sleepless night of guilty twisting in my sheets (really) plagued by nightmares about having been so horrid and rude to someone on the Internet, today I sat down and finally finished this book.

Oh, American Eve. I was so primed and eager to fall in love with you! Over the years my father had mentioned Evelyn Nesbit's bizarre love triangle on afternoon walks from Penn Station or in front of the Farragut memorial in Madison Square Park.... (In case anyone reading this isn't fa More...

21 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2010

Arminius rated it:

I have read about many great people who had many great gifts including courage, vision, and persistence among others. Evelyn Nesbit had however, what I consider, a rare quality. The quality is: being seen almost universally as beautiful. This is an attribute that I believe most people would love to have. But being so beautiful is not always a blessing as Evelyn Nesbit would discover.

Evelyn had a normal early child hood in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She evidently had a wonderful More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

May 24, 2008

Liz E rated it:

The first thrid reads like a romance novel, if the author cut out half the redundant sentences she would loose about 30 pgs from the whole book. Also it was like the author wrote this book while constantly using her thesaurus. I was reminded of an English professor who used two many adjectives to explain one point, so the style starts to wear down the reader to almost boredom. The book really picks up after the first 130 pages then the story takes off. The ending is really packed with facts as i More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jul 21, 2008

Carolyn rated it:

American Eve by Paula Uruburu is the quintessential documentation of the first "crime of the century" which occurred in 1906. This painstakingly researched book on the murder of the famous gilded age architect, Stanford White, by Harry K. Thaw, the playboy son of a multi-millionaire pious Pittsburgh family. The murder centers on the honor and affections of Evelyn Nesbit to whom Harry was married at the time of the murder. Evelyn, as a young girl, found herself in the position of pos More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2008

Annie rated it:

I have been enthralled with the Evelyn Nesbit story for years and was very excited to read this biography to learn what was really what, and who was really who.

Paula Uruburu is certainly the expert on Evelyn Nesbit, her terrible story and why it's been fascinating to so many of the morbidly curious. I have to say that her writing style vacillates between bombastic and cloying - a little too much and a little too little.

I also had a hard time with the fact that Uruburu co More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 21, 2008

Rose rated it:

In turn of the century New York, Pennsylvania-born Florence Evelyn Nesbit was a famous teen beauty. Her waterfall of dark red hair, heart-shaped face, and expression of unawakened sexuality put her in hot demand as a model, therefore her image graced calendars, sheet music covers, and printed ads. Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery used one of Nesbit's photos as inspiration for the heroine of her bestseller "Anne of Green Gables". She shone in the Floradora chorus and her stage-door More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2009

Adrienne added it

A biography of Evelyn Nesbit, the beauty who became the symbol of the Gilded Age. Often 'beauties of the age' don't stand the test of time, but Evelyn is just as beautiful now as she was considered to be back in 1901. At 16, Evelyn became one of the first 'super models'. At 21, Evelyn became the center of the 'crime of the century' when her husband Harry Thayer murdered the famous architect Stanford White, who had been her lover at the tender age of 16.

White later would be vilified as More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 21, 2011

Chris rated it:

Whatsherface married whatshisface, and they get their own television speical this fall. Neither one seems to have done anything to earn the fame or the reality show. But hey, at least whatsherface is better looking than Paris Hilton.

Society obessess about celebrities, even when they have done nothing to earn thier celebrity. Even those of us who look down on the gossip magazines have our weakness (Who cares about the earthquake as long as Will and Jada are fine!). We like putting More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2008

Paula added it

It is reviewed in the April 2008 Vogue, May O!, May 11th LA Times. It's in the June 1st New York Times Summer Reads Book Review. You can hear my podcast with the Washington Post BookTalk on their website.

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 31, 2008

Megan rated it:

I was fascinated by Evelyn Nesbit's story after seeing a television documentary about the Thaw/White trial a few years ago (American Experience: Murder of the Century). What a joy it is to now have this sad, dramatic life explored in depth. The overall tone is very sympathetic to Evelyn, while maintaining a critical eye on the facts, whether they play in her favor or not. The narrative flows in an easy, conversational manner, often reading more like a novel than nonfiction, but this only serv More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 23, 2008

Edgar rated it:

Paula Uruburu’s AMERICAN EVE: EVELYN NESBIT, STANFORD WHITE, THE BIRTH OF THE “IT” GIRL AND THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY is a first-rate, spirited and entertaining chronicle involving sex, celebrity, murder, media frenzy and a dead hippo.

Uruburu’s exhilarating tale begins in NYC during the final hours of 1899—an “Eden” where Nesbit, the titular Eve and “Little Sphinx,” rises from poverty and obscurity to become the preeminent model and pin-up girl of the day. Part Ophelia, part Salome, t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 14, 2008

L Greyfort rated it:

Just finished this - what an absorbing book! Feel Like I have to reacclimate to the 21st century!

While I knew the bare outlines of the story, the extent of the detail here is extraordinary. Ten years of research, thought, writing & editing have really paid off.

What makes this rendering of the history so arresting is how Paula has gotten inside the heads and hearts of all the protagonists. You must decide for yourself how much blame is be assigned to each of them, a More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 17, 2008

King rated it:

It has some pretty "poppy" writing. For example, I am not fond of how Ms. Uruburu's sentences end. But then there's just one more thing.

Sex. A one-word sentence like that is too melodramatic a device to employ in a serious history book.

And extended metaphors equating 1900 to the Garden of Eden are very pretty, but here I feel Ms. Uruburu succumbed to some fork-tongued serpent's sophistry in introducing this forbidden fruit to the verdant prelapsarian prose that More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2008

Jessica rated it:

The history of Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, Harry Thaw, et al. is fascinating. The way in which Paula Uruburu tells it is not. Her writing is mawkish and florid, and some passages read as if she is imitating the style of a dime novel.

The combined atrocities of Stanford White and Harry Thaw on the teen-aged Evelyn are horrifying, and instead of seeking to provide a more nuanced explanation of these people's motives in this story, Uruburu plays up the sentimental, superficial detail More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Elevate Difference rated it:

In American Eve, historian Paula Uruburu recounts the story of Evelyn Nesbit, the woman whose face, at 16, became the feminine beauty ideal when mass market advertising was in its youth. Evelyn’s mother lied so often about her daughter’s age that the exact year of her birth remains unverifiable. After gaining prominence for her ability to sit still and appear pensive in front of photographers and artists, 15-year-old Evelyn moves to New York City in 1901 to pursue – wait for it – acting. She cau More...

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Jan 21, 2009

Eleanor rated it:

Paula Uruburu's riveting American Eve explores the oft-told (but never this well or thoroughly) tale of the infamous "Girl in the Red Velvet Swing," and the murder of renowned architect Stanford White at the hands of her husband, Harry K. Thaw. I was stunned by the parallels with today's celebrity culture, and if you think there is anything new under the sun, this book will convince you otherwise. I was fascinated to learn that the first sequestered American jury was the one that heard More...

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Jan 05, 2009

Stop added it

Read the STOP SMILING review of American Eve:

Immaterial Girl: Paula Uruburu on Evelyn Nesbit, a Real Pre-Madonna

At the turn of the century, Evelyn Nesbit was the most beautiful, most photographed and possibly the most admired woman in America. Envied by women, courted by men, she was considered a new kind of beauty, the perfect type to embody the feminine ideal of a new era. Despite boasting no special accomplishments to augment her surpassing physical loveliness, she was as More...

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Nov 24, 2008

Stephanie rated it:

I liked the parallels between the upheaval in society at the turn on the 19th to the 20th century and today. Kicking and screaming, we went into that time of rampant capitalistic excess and now in some ways we are seeing the result. My God, if there had been cable news during this crime and trial -- Nancy Grace and Greta Van Susteren would have been all over this story.

The foundation for Evelyn's actions is laid out well after her father dies and her mother, incapable of taking care More...

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Jun 21, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Having just finished "The Architect of Desire," the serious and thoughtful work of Suzannah Lessard, "American Eve" at first came off a bit like the literary version of the trashy yet addictive TV show "City Confidential." It's definitely more of a popular take as opposed to scholarly, but I did appreciate that it offered a different perspective on Evelyn Nesbit's involvement with Stanford White. She's comes off as a very interesting, intelligent, multi-talented wom More...

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Sep 08, 2010

Talulah rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Nov 16, 2009

Mimi rated it:

What's the Point?

While Uruburu gives a good and interesting overview of this period in history, I can't figure out why she chose to pluck Nesbit from obscurity. As many feminist academics writing today desire to recover women's stories from misrepresentation, and I applaud this kind of work, Evelyn Nesbit is basically a cypher and the author offers no reasons why we should care about her story other than to sympathize with her exploitation by powerful men at the turn of the century. More...

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Jul 01, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

This was a pretty decent read, a biography of Evelyn Nesbit. In a nutshell, she was a fairly famous model and chorus girl who then became notorious when her millionaire husband shot and killed her former lover, architect Stanford White, in front of a large crowd of theater-goers in Union Square in 1906. Adding to the salaciousness of the thing was the point that she was quite young, a teenager when White first took advantage of her.

Overall, the story is extremely interesting and make More...

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May 21, 2009

Myckyee rated it:

As a teenager at the turn of the 20th century in New York, Evelyn Nesbit became the epitome of the ‘it’ girl. Her likeness was on the cover of postcards and magazines and she eventually became a ‘floradora’ girl and danced in popular shows in the city. She was well on her way to becoming a popular figure in entertainment.

Then she met 48 year old Stanford White. He arranged to meet Evelyn through another chorus girl in the floradora show. He took his time with Evelyn and her mother, More...

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May 20, 2009

Nicole rated it:

I'm currently trolling for books to use in history classes on "Crime and Justice in America," so I picked this one up. It was definitely an interesting read, although it wasn't perfect. The author approached the book with the assumption that her readers knew the basic story, and while newspapers at the time may have labeled it "the crime of the century," I'm not sure that many people today know very much about it; the most common thing may be that images of velvet swings asso More...

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Dec 15, 2011

Pikachu rated it:

I'd been wanting to read this book for two years because the title intrigued me and the girl on the cover was pretty. What with all the photoshopped cover models nowadays, I didn't really believe that it was really her, Evelyn Nesbit, gracing the book. But my God, the book included pictures of her and she was incredibly, strikingly beautiful. It just makes what happened to her all the more sad, because beneath that worldly beauty was a very sad, very innocent young girl who was born into the wro More...

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Jul 26, 2008

Tina rated it:

The story was interesting, however, I felt the author's run on sentences and writing style took so much away from the story. I found that by the time I finally finished the paragraph, I had lost what the author was trying to say. Also, the author jumps around quite a bit in the beginning. This is fine for the first chapter - as kind of an introduction, yet she continues jumping in the second chapter. I would love to edit this book!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 07, 2009

Melanie rated it:

In contrast to Paula Giddings' plodding tome about Ida B. Wells, this is an equally well-researched but very readable book. Evelyn Nesbit was the model/actress whose husband, Harry K. Thaw, killed the architect Stanford White (the old Penn Station, the original Madison Square Garden, etc.), who had been her lover. Uruburu here does a great job of conveying the different worlds of the main participants--Nesbit's family's struggles with poverty after the death of her father; her mother's ambition More...

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Jan 30, 2009

Diane rated it:

I didn't know much about Evelyn Nesbit or Stanford White before reading this, but someone in my book club suggested it as an interesting read.

Initially, I was afraid the book was going to be a bit challenging as the author kept repeating herself during the forward. Fortunately, this changed as she began to tell Evelyn's story.

In some ways, Evelyn could be considered the predecessor to the likes of Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. Unlike Paris, though, Evelyn came from More...

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Mar 11, 2011

Mary Grace rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 31, 2012

Samantha rated it:

So it's undeniably a fascinating story. To me, anyway. It's pretty unreal. I enjoyed it mostly because of the story, and not so much because of the writing. I was hoping for more based on the title. I was hoping for a stronger feminist commentary, a clearer connection made b/t that time and today and celebrity obsessive culture. There are almost-hints of it, but it's more just about that time and place than the title suggests. Which is fine, b/c it's a crazy world and it's fun to be enveloped i More...

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