Reviews with content warning for Lesbophobia - The Personal Librarian

The Personal Librarian is a fascinating, well-researched and engagingly told story of a woman who made headlines during her day but is relatively unknown today. Belle da Costa Greene worked as a personal librarian for financier JP Morgan and was responsible for curating the collection of rare books, manuscripts and paintings that became the Pierpont Morgan Library. As portrayed here, Belle was a fascinating woman, strong but flawed, with a very successful professional life and an interesting personal life. The setting is fun, with all the glitz and glamour of New York in the Gilded Age, but also European locales like London and Paris. There’s plenty of tension in the plot to hold a reader’s interest- the negotiations and auctions that had to be won to acquire what Morgan, a demanding and mercurial boss, wanted and expected; difficulties maintaining professional boundaries as a woman operating in an environment dominated by wealthy men. And then there was the issue of race for Belle was Black but passed as white. The reasons for this decision as well as the stresses it caused in all facets of her life were a key part of the story. The ramifications for Belle and her family if her secret was discovered would have been devastating. The historian in me loves when historical fiction comes with an author’s note delineating fact from fiction and this book delivered in that regard as well.

Definitely a book I recommend, one that raises issues as relevant today as they were more than one hundred years ago.

Content Warnings

kalin_grace's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

jennneely82's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I enjoyed reading the story of Belle De Costa Greene, the personal librarian of Mr. J. P. Morgan.

Content Warnings

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I got this book as a Book of the Month add-on because I love history (especially the Gilded Era) and thought it might be an interesting read. I have a love-hate relationship with historical fiction. I don’t mind if authors change facts for narrative purposes, but nothing takes me out a story more quickly than anachronistic word choice, descriptions, etc. Nevertheless, I gave The Personal Librarian a chance.

Plot:

The plot essentially covers Bella da Costa Greene from when she was hired as J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian until later in her life, focusing especially on the years from 1905-1916. It did not follow a traditional narrative, but it did not need to. Everything that happened in the book was fascinating, and the authors tied up just enough loose ends for it to be satisfactory.

Characters:

Bella da Costa Greene is obviously the star of this novel, and the authors wondrously dive into her life. They reconcile her outward wit, confidence, and success with the fact that she had to hide her skin color in order to gain her social position. Her character is believable, fascinating, and flawed—just as the real person undoubtedly was. The other two characters were J.P. Morgan and Bernard Berenson. J.P. Morgan is portrayed as an ambitious, overbearing, racist, even abusive man with too much power—as well as a lonely soul who loved art. His negative traits certainly outweigh his positive, but the authors sensitive portrayal humanize him and make him believable.

Bernard Berenson is the closest character the story has to an antagonist, as Belle falls in love with him, only to be repeatedly hurt by his abusive, manipulative, and greedy actions. The authors are careful not to portray him as an inhuman monster, but I did find it odd that they chose to heighten the unsavory aspects of the story’s only Jewish character. Berenson may have done some less-than-ethical things in the art world, but the story portrays him as greedy, lecherous, and sneaky.

Setting:

The authors spend more time on character interactions than describing the setting, but this choice fits with the story they are trying to tell.

Themes:

This book deals with themes of identity, prejudice, racism, and intersectionality in beautiful and complex ways. Every action that Belle takes has potential ramifications for her professional life and definite ramifications for her personal life. It led me to appreciate just how difficult life could be for someone who was white-passing, and ambitious, but who also wishes to be independent and fight for social equality.

Writing Style:

The writing is easy to comprehend and makes the characters come to life. It was easy to get sucked into the story. I could not tell that it was written by two authors, and for the most part there were no anachronisms that pulled me out of the story. At certain points, it seemed like the authors indulged their inner-history nerds a bit too much and wrote paragraphs describing a piece of history they found interesting, but this did not occur so frequently as to completely distract from the story.

Conclusion:

This was an excellent, eye-opening read that went beyond my expectations for historical fiction.

Other Points

· My favorite part of this book was that the authors did not try to make the characters fit into modern standards of morality. Obviously, Greene represents a strong woman of color who made her mark on America. However, the book did not shy away from exploring the complex moral questions that come from passing as white, which frequently meant becoming complicit in black people’s oppression. The authors were constantly mindful of the power dynamics at play: J.P. Morgan may have loved Belle and provided for her, but he felt that he could own and control her because he was a rich man and she a middle-class woman. Belle was a black woman, but she could weaponize Anne Morgan’s homosexuality against her to maintain her social position, etc. It added a layer of complexity and historicity to the story, something I appreciate as a historian.

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