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High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly MP3 CD – MP3 Audio, January 2, 2010

4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 423 ratings

In just seven years-from 1950 through 1956-Grace Kelly embarked on a whirlwind career that included roles in eleven movies. From the principled Amy Fowler Kane in High Noon to the thrill-seeking Frances Stevens of To Catch a Thief, Grace established herself as one of Hollywood's most talented actresses and iconic beauties. Her astonishing career lasted until her retirement at age twenty-six, when she withdrew from stage and screen to marry a European monarch and became a modern, working princess and mother. Based on never-before-published or quoted interviews with Grace and those conducted over many years with her friends and colleagues-from costars James Stewart and Cary Grant to director Alfred Hitchcock-as well as many documents disclosed by her children for the first time, acclaimed biographer Donald Spoto explores the transformation of a convent schoolgirl to New York model, successful television actress, Oscar-winning movie star, and beloved royal. As the princess requested, Spoto waited twenty-five years after her death to write this biography. Now, with honesty and insight, High Society reveals the truth of Grace Kelly's personal life, the men she loved, the men she didn't, and what lay behind the façade of her fairy-tale life.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[An] honest, refined biography.... Arguably the best general book on Grace Kelly currently available." ---Library Journal

About the Author

Donald Spoto is the author of more than twenty books, including bestselling biographies of Alfred Hitchcock, Tennessee Williams, Laurence Olivier, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, and Audrey Hepburn. He lives with his husband, Danish artist and school administrator Ole Flemming Larsen, near Copenhagen, Denmark.

George K. Wilson has narrated over one hundred fiction and nonfiction audiobook titles, from Thomas L. Friedman to Thomas Pynchon, and has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tantor Audio; MP3 - Unabridged CD edition (January 2, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1400165113
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400165117
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 0.6 x 7.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 423 ratings

About the author

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Donald Spoto
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Donald Spoto is the author of Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich, Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean, The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, Diana: The Last Year, The Hidden Jesus: A New Life, and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
423 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2022
This is such a great biography of Princess Grace. It was very informative and was an awesome book about Grace’s life. I learned a lot about Grace Kelly as a movie star and about the movies she was in. The book is mostly about America’s Grace Kelly, but the last chapter or so gives quite a bit of information about her once she became Princess Grace of Monaco. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Grace. It showed and represented her personality very well. Most of the information is from Grace herself, and quite a bit of the book is quotes from her. The book was absolutely amazing and shows who Grace really was.
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2018
This well-written biography of Grace Kelly/Princess Grace of Monaco offered insight to the person behind the glamorous movie star and royalty of the principality of Monaco. It provides an in depth look at the cut-throat business of movie studios early in Grace’s acting career, as well as her relationship with Alfred Hitchcock. I found the evolution of Grace as Princess particularly enjoyable, as I’ve traveled to Monaco and there gained a sense of how she was loved and treasured in her adopted home.
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2015
Missing about her family--more on husband and there is nothing about three children.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2024
A good biography of Princess Grace!
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2023
This is a truthful account of Grace Kelly, a true, graceful prince, a decent, dedicated, loving and caring human being, also down-to-earth, but with inward and outward beauty not to be surpassed by any other human being.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2009
I read Donald Spoto's first book when it came out in 1976, to which Princess Grace generously contributed a foreword, and I have read many of his books since. I'll have to say, as someone who has also read a number of other biographical books about Grace Kelly, this one does seem like something of a labor of love (being very restrained in its speculations), which is not all that bad, I suppose, considering that some of those other books probably adopt too lurid a view of Grace Kelly's Hollywood romances. If some of the omissions are surprising (no mention of Mark Miller, of Grace turned off by Gable's false teeth, of William Holden's trip to Philadelphia to meet the Kelly family and their cold treatment of him, of Grace's quite commendable candor to Gwen Robyns about her love affairs), Mr. Spoto has other things to contribute from his many interviews with Princess Grace and others (like Hitchcock) who knew her. His analytical comments on her films are also excellent (especially on HIGH NOON). He quotes Hitchcock on the essential "anti-cinematic" nature of 3D movies (which was how DIAL M FOR MURDER was filmed) and is consistently interesting on the background topics of the mores and customs of the Fifties. His view about the canceled plans for Grace to do MARNIE are contrary to those of others, but he makes his case convincing (I would say). Mr. Spoto's book is not in the least bit gossipy, and it's smart and enjoyably written (though the word "inchoate" turns up at least three or four times, annoyingly starting to seem like a word admiring itself in the mirror).
45 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2009
Donald Spoto's new biography of Grace Kelly is a well-written account of Kelly's life, with a special emphasis on her acting career. He bookends his solid accounts of her films, Broadway, and television work with info about her private life. I think most readers of Spoto's book will have already read other biographies of her entire life and so not mind the emphasis on her career.

Spoto's a good writer. He had a long-term friendship with Kelly and she talked to him over the years about her life and career, asking only that he wait twenty-five years to publish what she told him. The book seems restrained about her private life - particularly because other biographers have written about her supposedly voracious propensity to have affairs with her leading men. Spoto writes that most of the speculation about her sex life is just that - speculation - and was not true in most cases.

Spoto's obvious regard for his subject does not extend to fawning over her. Because he was concentrating on her career, I think it was easy for him to avoid making conjectures about her private life. I read the book in one sitting - it's not long - and came away with a very good appreciation of her career.
18 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2015
She was extraordinary,one of my favorite actress.So beautiful,and to live a restricted life as a princess

Top reviews from other countries

Joanne B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in Canada on November 5, 2020
A very engaging book, especially if you enjoy the golden eta.
dmk36
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good
Reviewed in Canada on March 7, 2018
Still reading it but so far I really enjoy it, extremely well written.
bond
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2016
tells you all about her life
Sunnybozzo
2.0 out of 5 stars Did not impress me but then this is not my ...
Reviewed in Canada on June 25, 2015
Did not impress me but then this is not my usual reading genre. Lots of information about her movies, most of the book could have come from the public domain.