the great mrs elias by barbara chase riboud

The narrative flashes back to recount her difficult childhood in Philadelphia and her decision to take on a new identity-a choice that has grave repercussions.

But in 1903, a murder takes place at Hannah’s opulent home, and her carefully constructed existence changes forever. Elias is based on the life of Hannah Elias, a Black woman who made a name for herself in early 20th-century New York City real estate, accruing enormous wealth along the way. Publisher: HarperCollins Date of Addition: 02/08/22 Copyrighted By: Barbara Chase-Riboud.Barbara Chase-Riboud’s The Great Mrs. Elias brings a fascinating woman and the age she embodied to glorious, tragic life.Ĭopyright: 2022 Book Details Book Quality: Publisher Quality Book Size: 416 Pages ISBN-13: 9780063020023 Related ISBNs: Elias finds herself alone, ensnared in a scandalous trial, and accused of stealing her fortune from whites.Packed with glamour, suspense, and drama, populated with real-life luminaries from the period, The Great Mrs. Hounded by the salacious press, the very private Mrs. When the truth of her identity is uncovered, thousands of protestors gather in front of her stately home.

Finally attaining the life she’s always dreamed, she buys a mansion on the Upper West Side and decorates it in gold and first-rate décor, inspired by her idol Cleopatra.The unsolved murder turns Hannah’s world upside-down and threatens to destroy everything she’s built. As the money pours in, Hannah hides her millions across 29 banks. Hannah quietly invests in the stock market, growing her fortune with the help of businessmen. Shedding her past, Hannah slips on a new identity before relocating to New York City to become as rich as a robber baron. This is the beginning of an odyssey that moves back and forth in time and reveals the dangerous secrets of a mysterious woman, the fortune she built, and her precipitous fall.Born in Philadelphia in the late 1800s, Hannah Elias has done things she’s not proud of to survive. The author of the award-winning Sally Hemings now brings to life Hannah Elias, one of the richest black women in America in the early 1900s, in this mesmerizing novel swirling with atmosphere and steeped in history.A murder and a case of mistaken identity brings the police to Hannah Elias’ glitzy, five-story, twenty-room mansion on Central Park West.

The great mrs elias by barbara chase riboud