... excellent ... The heiresses in Thompson’s book do not disappoint. It is packed with rich women who can buy everything but love ... Again and again the reader feels like shouting, 'What on earth were you thinking?' as heiress after heiress wilfully marries Mr Wrong ... wonderfully entertaining.

... exquisite and gossipy ... the women are too varied, their lives too disparate to draw a conclusion. But what japes we have along the way ... Thompson, a gifted storyteller, obviously delighted in the writing of this book ... She is also deft: historical facts and dates and laws are woven into a kaleidoscope-bright tableaux of human highs and lows. You learn almost by accident as you gorge, pruriently, on the glamour and the glitz.

... expansive, fascinating ... In the same way that audiences enjoy titles like Downton Abbey, Dynasty and Revenge, there is something very entertaining about the content of Heiresses, which definitely has the potential to be read as some deliciously soapy material ... Like those TV shows and films that entertain us so brilliantly, this book is also packed full of plenty of drama and scandal, and the figures at the heart of many of these stories lived these lives long enough ago that a modern audience is coming at it from enough distance that, at times, they really do feel just like stories, and not real events that happened to real people ... Thankfully, Thompson tempers all of this with a keen acknowledgement that the women she is profiling here are all too real, accompanying each story with a breakdown of nearly all of the external factors at play in their lives too ... covers a lot of ground with enough depth and charm that most readers are sure to find a chapter, a time period or a topic that will interest them in this book. This work’s biggest strength, however, is that Thompson never once loses sight of the people at its heart – and rightly so ... With plenty of gossip, scandal and witty insights on every page, Heiresses is undoubtedly an entertaining read from start to finish, telling stories that range from sad and heartbreaking to outrageous, frustrating and spectacularly glamorous. Although it’s fair to say that some women make more of an impact within these pages than others. Nevertheless, this is an intelligent, fascinating and infinitely readable book that’s been structured well and offers such a wealth of brilliant material (not to mention an entirely new reading list to explore afterwards) that even the most casual of readers will not fail to be captivated by the lives of the Million Dollar Babies.

The most recent heiresses in this selective catalog refused the default female position of passive victim that characterized earlier incarnations ... Alongside all the gossip, Ms. Thompson found a few enlightened heiresses, such as Angela Burdett-Coutts, who in the late 19th century made good philanthropic use of her millions. But heiresses such as these are not so fun to read about. They certainly don’t give us the same delicious shiver of schadenfreude.

Thompson spreads herself far more thinly with the organizing principle that 'it really is different for girls.' Her well-informed but slightly breathless narrative ranges from the 17th century to the 21st, crisscrossing continents as if on the Concorde rather than one of Cunard’s pokey liners, and her choice of which 'female stories' to tell can feel somewhat arbitrary ... Thompson is a skilled literary analyst ... This is not so much an encyclopedia of heiresses as a starter pack ... With diligence and proper indignation, Thompson shows how, long before Hearst’s ordeal hit the airwaves, these ostensibly fortunate daughters had an inherent vulnerability ... Thompson’s sly asides, often in parentheses, can make her seem like a marquise at the party, behind her fan. She strives mightily to connect heiresses, a somewhat antiquated concept, to the present, which sometimes misfires ... Trapped in a silk-draped Venn diagram with the socialite and hostess, the heiress has been an unfair object of ridicule. After years of getting dragged through the tabloids and trotted out on reality shows like one of her beloved show ponies, she is both restored to dignity by Thompson’s concerned embrace and pushed away with an air kiss. It’s a complicated romp.

[Thompson] is right: we do tend to think that if we were heiresses, we’d be intelligent and sensible about it and would live in a state of permanently fulfilled bliss. This book suggests that we’d probably make the same mistakes and that life with a keen edge of financial anxiety is actually happier ... Thompson gives us a pleasingly long perspective on the poor little rich girl ... My eyes started to glaze over at the torrent of names and the endless stream of loveless luxury. Much as Thompson succeeds in bringing out the pathos, in her case studies, the lasting impression is of the shallowness of that moneyed world. As glue and ballast for her argument, she peppers her pages with modifiers...This has a confusing effect.

... odd but absorbing ... what about the unmentioned modern philanthropists — Vivien Duffield, Sigrid Rausing, Jasmine Whitbread — who have used their inherited fortunes for virtuous ends? No room here for Lady Byron (the poet’s maligned widow) and her pioneering work in co-ed schools and prisons? Instead, Thompson presents a gossip-strewn survey of rich women with time on their hands ... Less edifying, but unwholesomely enthralling, are Thompson’s tales of the heiresses who never found a cause.

Pages are filled with well-documented accounts of horrid mistreatment, legal wrangling, unimaginable spending, lavish lifestyles, and general depravity. In short, authoritative, eye-opening, and gloriously gossipy.

... entertaining ... Skillfully evoking disparate social milieus and generational divides, Thompson packs the narrative full of juicy gossip without resorting to caricature. Readers will be enthralled.

... engaging ... Thompson, who has penned biographies of Agatha Christie and the Mitford sisters, knows how to construct fascinating narratives out of dry research. Working from historical records, newspaper articles, and personal correspondence, the author creates a series of sketches that highlight recurring themes but also offer great variety ... A gilded cage creates a streak of self-destruction, notes Thompson. Nevertheless, she reveals her subjects as real people with measures of tragedy, resilience, and vigor ... A book that offers insight as well as entertainment—a peek into the human condition from an unexpected angle.