Before Jackie Collins, Candace Bushnell and Lena Dunham, Jacqueline Susann held the world rapt with her tales of the private passions of Hollywood starlets, high-powered industrialists and the jet-set.
Valley of the Dolls took the world by storm when it was first published, fifty years ago. Never had a book been so frank about sex, drugs and show business. It is often sited as the bestselling novel of all time.
Dolls – red or black; capsules or tablets; washed down with vodka or swallowed straight. For Anne, Neely and Jennifer, it doesn’t matter, as long as the pill bottle is within easy reach. These three beautiful women become best friends when they are young and in New York, struggling to make their names in the entertainment industry. Only when they reach the peak of their careers do they find there’s nowhere left to go but down – to the Valley of the Dolls.
Valley of the Dolls took the world by storm when it was first published, fifty years ago. Never had a book been so frank about sex, drugs and show business. It is often sited as the bestselling novel of all time.
Dolls – red or black; capsules or tablets; washed down with vodka or swallowed straight. For Anne, Neely and Jennifer, it doesn’t matter, as long as the pill bottle is within easy reach. These three beautiful women become best friends when they are young and in New York, struggling to make their names in the entertainment industry. Only when they reach the peak of their careers do they find there’s nowhere left to go but down – to the Valley of the Dolls.
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Reviews
Valley Of The Dolls remains a brave, bold, angry and, yes, definitely a feminist book. All that, and still about the most fun you can have without a prescription
50 years later, it's still spot on. The world's changed immensely but the climb to the top is still a tough one
The kind of book most of its readers could not put down. I, for one, could not . . . For me reading Valley of the Dolls was like reading a very, very long, absolutely delicious gossip column . . . Magnetic
Jackie, it seemed, understood by instinct that her readers were ready for the raw side of love . . . for a franker sexuality and a tougher kind of story-for romance with tears and oral sex
Valley Of The Dolls remains a brave, bold, angry and, yes, definitely a feminist book. All that, and still about the most fun you can have without a prescription
Valley of the Dolls remains a pop-culture touchstone: a gleefully salacious story of friendship, sex, backstabbing and pills . . . Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the tawdry tale of Anne Welles, Jennifer North and Neely O'Hara hasn't lost its punch . . . One of the most talked-about books of all time
Valley of the Dolls remains a pop-culture touchstone: a gleefully salacious story of friendship, sex, backstabbing and pills . . . Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the tawdry tale of Anne Welles, Jennifer North and Neely O'Hara hasn't lost its punch . . . One of the most talked-about books of all time
Much imitated, but never bettered
The kind of book most of its readers could not put down. I, for one, could not . . . For me reading Valley of the Dolls was like reading a very, very long, absolutely delicious gossip column . . . Magnetic
50 years later, it's still spot on. The world's changed immensely but the climb to the top is still a tough one
