Customer Reviews

Infinite Variety: The Life & Legend of the Marchesa Casati (Updated "Definitive Edition")

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'This books about the Marchesa Casati (1881-1957) is called "The Definitive Edition" about a lady of extravagant leisures. It is an excellent book reviving the roaring twenties in Europe and gives you a fairy good insight of the lifestyle of the truly rich and famous through to the 1940s. Part of this set was the Marchesa Casati, who is a source of inspiration to this very day for fashion designers, artists and wealthy heirs. So if you squander your vast inheritance, at least do it in style!' (from Elegant Lifestyle)

'"Infinite Variety" is a thoroughly unbiased and well-researched biography. The 'Definitive Edition' includes a plethora of new information as well as artwork and photos. Thanks to the efforts of Ryersson and Yaccarino, the story of the Marchesa Casati, with all its splendor, will continue to astonish.'--Jonathan Williams, Gothic Beauty Magazine

"'Infinite Variety: The Definitive Edition' provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the bizarre and spectacular life that Casati led...All you fashion-conscious history buffs will love the in-depth exploration the authors take into Casati's stylish life."-Denise Dandeneau (Zink Magazine)

"This meticulously researched and completely updated biography vividly details Luisa Casati's extravagant life...Fashionistas, art history buffs, aficionados of Belle Époque and Jazz Age culture-and general readers-will be pleased."-Lorraine Thompson (Primo Magazine)

"This is a book about an extravagant, eccentric, bizarre and truly original phenomenon, my grandmother. Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino have researched their subject with depth and thoroughness, without which this book could easily have been thought to be fiction. They have brought to life a true feeling of the Belle Époque and the extraordinary, exotic, outlandish character of La Casati. It is a bizarre story, and this telling of it shows a love and affection for the subject that she would certainly have recognized." Lady Moorea Black, Casati's granddaughter, for Spectator

"A meticulously researched biography, Infinite Variety is as much art history as chronicle of personal obsession."
Leslie Chess Feller, New York Times

"Like a siren seated on the rocks of Capri, or a fabulously plumed bird of paradise shimmering in the grandest salon, the Marchesa Casati was the most extraordinary of the self-styled femmes fatales. Now, at last, we have a book which captures the legend; this engrossing study of the divine Luisa unfolds the fascinating story of her bizarre, baroque life in riveting detail." Stephen Calloway, Curator, Victoria & Albert Museum

"Casati plunged into extravagant exhibitionism-aestheticism-narcissism-living a life of striking surrealism...Infinite Variety is a fascinating biography...With or without her cheetahs, Casati's circus of the self makes her a natural for the new millennium." Laura Jacobs, Vanity Fair

"Never before has there been a biography on the Divine Marquise. Now, here it is-written with so much passion, La Casati is filled with testimonies of the period and the most fabulous anecdotes." Laurence Mouillefarine, Le Figaro Madame

"Ryersson and Yaccarino are judicious historians of frivolity who capture the tone of a life that was obscenely profligate yet strangely pure." Judith Thurman, The New Yorker

To read this book is to enter another world. It plunges the reader headfirst into the world before, then after World War 1 through the character of one fabulous woman. A woman ahead of her time, and possibly even our time. The Marchesa Luisa Casati set out to invent herself at a time when most women only sought the protection of marriage.
The writers present this complicated woman without making judgements or trying to force the reader to make judgements. There is little or no psychologizing of the sort that makes many biographies tedious reading. It is a case of "Here is the story of this one woman whose life touched practically every great artist, writer, dancer,and of the time in which she lived. Make of it what you will, but she provided a hell of a ride."
I have just read it and am looking forward to reading it all over again. Some of what I read I MUST read again, just to assure myself it is true. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the arts of the first half of the twentieth century and to anyone who simply wants a damn good read.

I read a review of this book in a national newspaper in the UK, and it sounded so interesting I bought it. I had never heard of the Marchesa before, but I have no idea why, she is so strange and marvellous that she really ought to be a household name. It's a bit too heroine-worshipping - yes, she is fascinating, but perhaps she wasn't terribly nice to know. But this is still a very absorbing book - I wish there had been more photos of her, but I suppose there is a generous selection already.

I've been a long time fan of the Marchesa Casati and her wild antics and have always hoped there'd someday be a book on her. I couldn't believe it when I finally found "Infinite Variety". This book was worth the wait. It contains so much info on this bizarre "living work of art" that her life is hard to believe, but, as they say "Believe it or not"! I can't beileve that there's been nothing on Casati before. A fantastic book. My only complaint was that the authors didn't reproduce all of the paintings of Casati. But, there are over 50 pictures, each one better than the last. You won't believe some of them! Like I said, a fantastic book. Casati couldn't have asked for more!