Heiresses have always been viewed with eyes of envy. They were the ones for whom the cornucopia had been upended, showering them with unimaginable wealth and opportunity. However, through intimate historical biographies, Women of Means shows us that oftentimes the weaving sisters saved their most heart-wrenching tapestries for the destinies of wealthy women. From the author of Behind Every Great Man, we now have Women of Means, vignettes of the women who were slated from birth―or marriage―to great privilege, only to endure lives which were the stuff Russian tragic heroines are made of. Some of the women whose silver spoons rusted include—Liliane Bettencourt, whose chemist father created L’Oreal; Nica Rothschild, who traded her gilded life to become the Baroness of Bebop; Ruth Madoff, the dethroned queen of Manhattan; and Patty Hearst, who trod the path from heiress... to terrorist.