Name: The Baroness
Price: 21.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Hannah Rothschild
ISBN: 9781101872338

Beautiful and spirited, Pannonica Rothschild, known as Nica, was born in 1913 to eccentric privilege and a storied family history. After marrying well, she settled into a French chateau to bear children and support her husband’s war career. But when Nica heard “Round Midnight” by jazz composer Thelonious Monk, everything changed. She abandoned her marriage, found Monk in New York, and devoted herself to him and to other musicians, becoming the unsung philanthropist of the city’s Jazz scene.

Hannah Rothschild has given twenty years to the quest of revealing who her great-aunt really was. Drawing on unpublished archival material, private family records and her own interviews, she has produced a fascinating portrait—part musical odyssey, part love story—that showcases a woman ahead of her time who dared to live as she wanted.

Beautiful, romantic and spirited, Pannonica, known as Nica, named after her father’s favorite moth, was born in 1913 to extraordinary, eccentric privilege and a storied history. The Rothschild family had, in only five generations, risen from the ghetto in Frankfurt to stately homes in England. As a child, Nica took her daily walks, dressed in white, with her two sisters and governess around the parkland of the vast house at Tring, Hertfordshire, among kangaroos, giant tortoises, emus and zebras, all part of the exotic menagerie collected by her uncle Walter. As a debutante, she was taught to fly by a saxophonist and introduced to jazz by her brother Victor; she married Baron Jules de Koenigswarter, settled in a château in France and had five children. When World War II broke out, Nica and her five children narrowly escaped back to England, but soon after, she set out to find her husband who was fighting with the Free French Army in Africa, where she helped the war effort by being a decoder, a driver and organizing supplies and equipment.

In the early 1950s Nica heard “’Round Midnight” by the jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and, as if under a powerful spell, abandoned her marriage and moved to New York to find him. She devoted herself to helping Monk and other musicians: she bailed them out of jail, paid their bills, took them to the hospital, even drove them to their gigs, and her convertible Bentley could always be seen parked outside downtown clubs or up in Harlem. Charlie Parker would notoriously die in her apartment in the Stanhope Hotel. But it was Monk who was the love of her life and whom she cared for until his death in 1982.

Hannah Rothschild has drawn on archival material and her own interviews in this quest to find out who her great-aunt really was and how she fit into a family that, although passionate about music and entomology, was reactionary in always favoring men over women. Part musical odyssey, part love story, The Baroness is a fascinating portrait of a modern figure ahead of her time who dared to live as she wanted, finally, at the very center of New York’s jazz scene.

“Utterly absorbing.” —Elle, A “Must-Read Book”

“Rothschild pushes aside the smoke, the scandal, and the pearls to present a fair portrait of her compulsive, elusive ancestress.” —The Daily Beast

“Rothschild has fun evoking the fizz of Nica’s New York.” —The New Yorker

“An eminently readable, well researched biography—one third a history of the Rothschild family, one third a portrait of Nica and one third a biography of Monk.” —The Sunday Times (London)

“A more rounded portrait of Nica than any published before.” —The Week

“Hannah tells this story with care, balancing narrative tension with a desire to lay out all the facts so readers can make up their own minds. . . . Wholly gripping.” —The Guardian

“An enjoyable, madcap read about a woman who once raced Miles Davis in a car … and played a part in nurturing a generation of struggling musicians.” —The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)

“Smoky, seductive, smart, and full of both beautiful and sad family lore.” —Interview Magazine

“Rothschild blends biography and personal history to uncover an enigma who had all but vanished from the family annals.” —Town and Country

“At first glance Thelonious (Monk) and Pannonica (Rothschild) might seem to have nothing in common. Yet as Hannah Rothschild shows in this tender memoir, the symmetries of their lives ran far deeper.” —Mail on Sunday (London)

“[A] remarkable . . . sophisticated recounting of [the Rothschilds’] riveting history.” —WWD

“An eminently readable, well researched biography—one third a history of the Rothschild family, one third a portrait of Nica and one third a biography of Monk. Nica comes across as a remarkable woman, strong, feisty and rebellious.” —The Sunday Times (London)

“This revelatory and unique biography feels long overdue. . . . A more rounded portrait of Nica than any published before.” —The Week

“[An] honest, compassionate portrait. . . . Rothschild’s work covers the unique perspective of a family member whose quest to comprehend the essence of her fascinating yet controversial great-aunt is illuminating . . . . Provides thoughtful insight into Nica’s life, milieu, and cultural era, and will appeal to jazz enthusiasts as well as to musicians and popular historians.” —Library Journal

“[A] fascinating history of the Rothschild dynasty.” —W Magazine

“Charming. . . . Nica is an irresistible combination of British eccentricity and Rothschild sophistication. Readers will enjoy this intimate story of a lifetime of rule breaking, told with remarkable detail, tenderness, and true empathy.” —Publisher’s Weekly

“The fascinating story of a member of Europe’s banking aristocracy who spent the second, half of her life swinging with New York’s jazz aristocracy. . . . An engaging mixture of well-researched biography and personal reminiscences about her formidable relatives.” —Kirkus Reviews

The Baroness

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By Hannah Rothschild