A Dangerous Woman

November 1, 2017
A biography of a seductress, gold digger, and Nazi collaborator.As Ronald (Hitler's Art Thief: Hildebrand Gurlitt, the Nazis, and the Looting of Europe's Treasures, 2015, etc.) repeatedly asserts, Florence Gould (1895-1983) was "an unmitigated snob and egotist" whose only goal in life was "having a good time in high society." Born in America to French parents, Gould had aspirations to become a world-famous opera singer; when her talent did not measure up to her outsized self-assessment, she became a chorus girl. After divorcing her wealthy first husband, she caught the eye of Frank Gould, the alcoholic son of railroad magnate Jay Gould, whom she wrested away from his second wife. Frank provided her with jewels and a string of hotels and casinos in French resorts. He also had a predisposition to collecting his own coterie of mistresses while she thrived in the company of "pretty boys" and lovers, including the besotted Charlie Chaplin. Gould's "beauty, charm, and fabulous wealth had become a deadly man magnet," Ronald writes. She had a reputation "as a lioness, devouring the men she wanted at will." Drawing on many published sources, newspaper reports of Gould's scandalous escapades, and Gould's often fraudulent testimony when she was interrogated as a Nazi collaborator, Ronald conveys the glittering surface of Gould's life. Without intimate correspondence or diaries, however, she fails to uncover her subject's feelings, motivations, and thoughts, resulting in a one-dimensional portrait of an astonishingly selfish woman. Chronicling her many affairs and swirling social life, Ronald homes in on Gould's liaison with Ludwig Vogel, a former German Luftwaffe officer, who became her lover and protector during the Nazi occupation of France, one of "a dizzying, revolving door of German men." Vogel, though, was the most important, keeping Gould supplied with all manner of "delectable treats" while most Parisians were nearly starving. Although doggedly investigated after the war, not least for her part in a money-laundering scheme, Gould suffered no reprisals, devoting herself to art, music, and pleasure.A light, lively narrative about a singular, narcissistic woman.

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December 4, 2017
Ronald (Hitler’s Art Thief) provides an unvarnished account of the life of avant-garde socialite Florence Lacaze Gould, whose dazzling, gilded lifestyle belied her dark side as a libertine, Nazi collaborator, and war profiteer. Born in San Francisco in 1895, Florence spent much of her childhood in Paris after her family was displaced by the 1906 earthquake. After a brief marriage to millionaire Henry Heynemann, Florence wed Frank Gould, scion of a railroad mogul, in 1923. They maintained an open marriage (Charlie Chaplin, Harpo Marx, and Pablo Picasso were among her many lovers). Known as a great beauty with “sexually charged allure,” Florence was also a sharp businesswoman who owned successful casinos, restaurants, and hotels. Ronald sprinkles the narrative with vignettes of high society in Paris during the roaring ’20s and ’30s; Florence hosted a salon for the literati during the Nazi occupation years, during which she also bought looted artwork, bribed and bedded members of the Gestapo, and was caught up in a banking scandal. Although Florence’s letters and photographs were inaccessible to the author, Ronald compensates with layers of research into the period and surrounding players. While the dense historical detail may deter lay readers, history lovers will welcome this impressive book about a captivating, flawed woman.