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Description edit
The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties. Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties. Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters edit
- Cordelia Grey: Letty's best friend who is searching for her father in New York City.
- Letty Larkspur: Cordelia's best friend. A young girl who believes she has talent and wants to have fame for her singing, acting, and dancing skills. She leaves Ohio and goes to New York City to follow this dream.
- Charlie Grey: Son of Darius Grey and Astrid's boyfriend
- Astrid Donal: Befriends Cordelia when she first arrives in New York and is her brother, Charlie Grey's, girlfriend.
- Paulette: Cigarette Girl
- Thom Hale: A man that Cordelia falls in love with
- Darius Grey: Notorious bootlegger, father of Charlie Grey
- Grady Lodge: A young man who takes an interest in Letty
- Mr. Cole: Owns the speak-easy
- Billie Marsh: Astrid's step-sister
- Danny: Works for the Grey's
- Mr. Elias Jones: Darius' right-hand man
- Aunt Ida: Cordelia's aunt who raises Cordelia after her mother dies
- Mrs. Edgemont Phipps: Add a description of this character.
- Norma: a dancer
- Luke: A young man who used to lead Astrid's pony when she was little and now seems to be always with Astrid's mother. He works at the country club and Astrid bothers her mother by flirting with them
- Kate: One of Letty's roommates
- Good Egg: Letty's greyhound
- Gracie Northrup: A girl Charlie and Astrid know.
- Max Darby: The famous pilot
- John Field: A young man Cordelia was engaged to and married in Ohio
- Edmund Laurel
- Duluth Hale: Darius Grey's rival and Thom's father
- Cass Beaumont
- Mr. Amory Glenn: man in show biz who shows interest in Letty
- Laura
- Len
- Clara Hay
- Virginia Donal de Gruyter Marsh, Mrs. Harrison Marsh II: Astrid's mother
- Fanny Larson
- Milly
- Fay
- Mona Alexander
- Darius Grey: Cordelia's father
Quotes edit
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“... it was a place of wonders where the citizens used the sky as their tablets and airplanes for pens.”
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“‘Oh, hello, new girls,’ she said. Her lips were painted with cardinal red lipstick, and her eyes shone as she assessed them. She looked like a magazine illustration of what they called ‘flappers.’”
Cordelia Grey -
“"Love is all right, as things go, but lovers can be a terrible waste of a girl's time."”
Astrid Donal -
“"It is easy to forget now, how effervescent and free we all felt that summer."”
Astrid Donal
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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Love is all right, as things go, but lovers can be a terrible waste of a girl‧s time. —Cara Gatling
Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers -
Forget your wincing humiliations, forget life‧s blows, and get on.
Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers -
During those hours when afternoon yields to evening, a city is full of girls in front of mirrors, rotating their faces right and left, finding themselves pretty beyond all conception or else hopelessly inadequate.
Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers -
People everywhere forgetting with drink or forgetting with religion or forgetting with the numbing quality of their many heaps of things.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers -
She wanted to see the sun coming up in another state, and everything else the world had been holding just out of her reach.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers -
That is what I want to tell you about: the girls with their short skirts and bright eyes and big-city dreams.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers -
We did whatever we liked and dressed in whatever we thought smart and broke rules for the sport of it—diving into public fountains, mixing social classes as casually as we mixed cocktails.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
- New York City: Where Letty and Cordelia go to follow their dreams.
- Union, Ohio: Letty and Cordelia's home town and state.
- Seventh Heaven: Place Letty and Cordelia go for their first night in New York City and where Letty gets a job as a cigarette girl.
- White Cove: Country Club
- Dogwood: Residence of The Greys.
- Washborne
- Manhattan
- Long Island
First Sentence edit
It is easy to forget, now, how effervescent and free we all felt that summer.
Table of Contents edit
Prologue
Chapters 1 - 28
Glossary edit
- Flapper: A young woman in the 1920s who flaunted her unconventional conduct and dress
- Bootlegger: Someone who makes or sells illegal liquor
Themes & Symbolism edit
- Friendship conquers all.: True friends can get through anything together and remain close.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 1 of 3 in Bright Young Things. (standard series)
Followed by Beautiful Days.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Anna Godbersen (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Harper Collins
Country: USA
Publication Date: October 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0061962660
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper Collins
Country: USA
Publication Date: October 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0061962660
Page Count: 400
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Historical Fiction
- Dewey: FIC GOD
Notes for Parents edit
Reading Level: Young AdultsThis is a great book for a high school girl. Its a very clean book but it does contain alcohol, smoking and a couple sexual scenes. This book is like a 1920's version of gossip girl.
Subjects edit
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
- BYT and Luxe: The author's website.
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