What the Lady Wants

A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age

By: Renée Rosen

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

In late 19th-century Chicago, visionary retail tycoon Marshall Field made his fortune wooing women customers with his famous motto, "Give the lady what she wants." His legendary charm also won the heart of socialite Delia Spencer and led to an infamous love affair.

The night of the Great Fire, as seventeen-year-old Delia watches the flames rise and consume what was the pioneer town of Chicago, she can't imagine how much her life, her city, and her whole world are about to change - nor can she guess that the agent of that change will not simply be the fire but more so the man she meets that night.

Leading the way in rebuilding after the fire, Marshall Field reopens his well-known dry goods store and transforms it into something the world has never seen before: a glamorous palace of a department store. He and his powerhouse coterie - including Potter Palmer and George Pullman - usher in the age of robber barons, the American royalty of their generation.

But behind the opulence, their private lives are riddled with scandal and heartbreak. Delia and Marshall first turn to each other out of loneliness, but as their love deepens, they will stand together despite disgrace and ostracism, through an age of devastation and opportunity, when an adolescent Chicago is transformed into the gleaming White City of Chicago's World's Fair of 1893.

©2014 Renée Rosen (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great history great story

I enjoyed listening to this book about the history of Chicago and Marshall Field. As always Renee Rosen delivers.

An average read

I have not read a great deal of historical fiction, but I found this book to be a bit thin ... Neither the characters nor the events comprising the story were well developed. I did not engage emotionally in this book, and so give it 3 stars as an adequate audible selection.

Tragic Fact-based Saga

I knew nothing about Marshall Field or Chicago at the end of the 19th Century. As rich as he was -'$100 million at his death-- Marshall Field and Delia Spencer were surrounded by one tragedy after another. The whole saga was fascinating. I found myself crying during many events in the book. Well told story. I highly recommend to anyone who loves a good story.

Interesting story but didn’t love the narration and some of the writing style

Interesting historical fiction about Marshall field and I did not know about this incident in history so I appreciate learning more about this time in an interesting way.

I didn’t love some of the flow and that it seemed like some of the wording was not consistent with that time period and I didn’t love the narration.

However, interesting to learn about this time period and then did some of my own research after to see what was fact and what was fiction.

No tigers in Africa

Further to the point of the book being poorly researched… Arthur could not have gone on safari in Africa and shot a tiger from which they made a rug….there are no tigers in Africa.