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Title details for The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin - Wait list

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb

A Novel

by Melanie Benjamin
Kim Mai Guest
Audiobook
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In her national bestseller Alice I Have Been, Melanie Benjamin imagined the life of the woman who inspired Alice in Wonderland. Now, in this jubilant new novel, Benjamin shines a dazzling spotlight on another fascinating female figure whose story has never fully been told: a woman who became a nineteenth century icon and inspiration—and whose most daunting limitation became her greatest strength.
 
“Never would I allow my size to define me. Instead, I would define it.”
 
She was only two-foot eight-inches tall, but her legend reaches out to us more than a century later. As a child, Mercy Lavinia “Vinnie” Bump was encouraged to live a life hidden away from the public. Instead, she reached out to the immortal impresario P. T. Barnum, married the tiny superstar General Tom Thumb in the wedding of the century, and transformed into the world’s most unexpected celebrity.
Here, in Vinnie’s singular and spirited voice, is her amazing adventure—from a showboat “freak” revue where she endured jeering mobs to her fateful meeting with the two men who would change her life: P. T. Barnum and Charles Stratton, AKA Tom Thumb. Their wedding would captivate the nation, preempt coverage of the Civil War, and usher them into the White House and the company of presidents and queens. But Vinnie’s fame would also endanger the person she prized most: her similarly-sized sister, Minnie, a gentle soul unable to escape the glare of Vinnie’s spotlight.
A barnstorming novel of the Gilded Age, and of a woman’s public triumphs and personal tragedies, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is the irresistible epic of a heroine who conquered the country with a heart as big as her dreams—and whose story will surely win over yours.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 26, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780307713513
      • File size: 432096 KB
      • Duration: 15:00:11

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Thirty-two-inch tall Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump may have been little in terms of stature, but her ambition was seemingly boundless. Narrator Kim Mai Guest's small voice is fitting for this diminutive nineteenth-century celebrity who capitalized on her size by employing her intelligence, drive, and calculating disposition to become a famous performer in P.T. Barnum's shows. Vinnie's personality characteristics are apparent in Guest's performance as she imparts a precise eloquence and a slight haughtiness to Vinnie's speech. Guest also captures P.T. Barnum's business acumen and "General" Tom Thumb's well-meaning but dim character. This fictionalized autobiography employs snippets of historical headlines, which Guest trumpets in an old-fashioned style. S.E.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 21, 2011
      Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump, the diminutive wife of Gen. Tom Thumb, narrates her life story in this vivacious fictionalized autobiography that takes her from a small New England town to a seedy Mississippi showboat and eventually into the entourage of the impresario P.T. Barnum. Born with proportionate dwarfism, Vinnie, a "perfect woman in miniature," rejects a career as a schoolteacher in favor of show business, eventually finding an intellectual soul mate in Barnum and international fame that leads her into the opulence of New York society and meetings with heads of state from the White House to Europe and India. Benjamin (Alice I Have Been) centers the latter half of her tale around Vinnie and Barnum's odd-couple friendship and touchy business relationship, sometimes glossing frustratingly over Vinnie's own adventuresâa three-year tour of Australia and Asia is given only a few pagesâand leaving the last 40 years of her life untold. But the smart and unyieldingly ladylike Vinnie emerges as an effervescent narrator with a love of life and a grand story worth the price of admission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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