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Chanel
- An Intimate Life
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
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Publisher's Summary
By the end of World War I, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel had revolutionised women's dress. But dress was the most visible aspect of more profound changes she helped to bring about. During the course of her extraordinary journey, from abject poverty to a new kind of glamour, she would help forge the idea of the modern woman. Unearthing an astonishing life, this remarkable biography shows how the most influential designer of her century became synonymous with a rebellious and progressive style.
Her numerous liaisons, whose most poignant details have eluded previous biographers, were the stuff of legend. Witty, strange, mesmerizing, Chanel became muse, patron, or mistress to some of the century's most celebrated artists, including Stravinsky, Picasso, and Dali.
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What listeners say about Chanel
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Yuefang
- 08-23-14
Chanel Chanel!!!
I'm so fortunate find this audiobook, Chanel always makes me fascinating and most of all inspiring about fashion at my adult age.
2 people found this helpful
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- L.W.
- 04-24-15
Half & Half
What did you like best about Chanel? What did you like least?
The first half was very interesting, then it became yawn worthy and then it was just annoying
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
In the beginning the author says how little is documented. Out her personal thoughts, how few letters she wrote. I enjoy the history and the info how she started out in life. In the later parts of the book, for me, the author thought she was hanneling Gabriella telling someone us of her thoughts,. She thought this, she felt that. It annoyed me and I do not understand why editing didn't catch this?
What do you think the narrator could have done better?
For me the narration was fine.
What else would you have wanted to know about Lisa Chaney’s life?
Now you see right there, we aren't buying Lisa Chaney's life, we were BUYING a telling of Gabriella CoCo Chanel!
5 people found this helpful
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- Michelle
- 04-20-18
Politically Charged and Inaccurate
The author of this book had a political axe to grind, instead of providing information on Chanel’s life, most of the book covered Chanel’s life in relation to politics, and the author wants to make sure the reader associates the Nazi’s with...Republicans? Strangely, the author was also obsessed with the sexual orientation of Chanel and the artists Chanel hung around. You can mention that once or twice but between politics and the bisexual nature of Chanel, this book didn’t provide anything new! I’m very disappointed, I wish I had more insight into her life as it related to fashion.
2 people found this helpful
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- Mauren Pardo
- 02-24-22
Loved the detail of each character!
There a lot of detail of how things were at the time, she even went into outfit details! Great narrator. Wow
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- Helen
- 09-09-12
Great book, shame about the 'Allo 'Allo accents...
I was very keen to get this, despite it being read by Carole Boyd. [Sorry, Carole but with a voice as distinctive as yours, you'll always be the didactic Linda Snell to me.]
Unfortunately, the Audible excerpt did not contain any quotes by Chanel or any other characters involved. Therefore, it was with an unpleasant jolt that I heard the first 'Allo, 'Allo accent [the eponymous Coco]. This is a pet hate of mine, that is, when readers or actors use stupid accents to convey someone's nationality when said someone is speaking in their own language!! Surely if nothing else, we all know Chanel was French!! The reading continued in the same vein with all the foreign Johnnies spouting pantomime French, Russians, Spanish etc..
Presumably, if Ms Boyd were ever called upon to read War and Peace or Anna Karenina, all the characters would speak in bad Russian accents (or, given that the Russian nobs all spoke French, would they have Franco-Russian accents?)
If that stuff doesn't bother you, then go ahead, Lisa Chaney has, I think, written a good book but I shall be reading it the old-fashioned way.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall

- Christine lee
- 10-25-12
Chanel: An intimate Life
Fast moving and clear, a great look at the great Coco Chanel by a perceptive and accomplished writer who paints a picture of the times Chanel inhabited as well as her character and imagination. I loved it and could hardly "put it down". The reading is spirited and helpful.
1 person found this helpful
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- Yeh C.
- 03-31-20
Fabulous story of 20th century’s most iconic couturier
Lisa Chaney details a vivid account of how Gabrielle went from an abandoned orphan to democratising fashion for women in the 20th century and beyond. I especially enjoyed details of her relationships with artists, poets, politicians and society figures who helped shaped her world view and ultimately her designs, whilst taking nothing away from her creativity and her mantra of a simple black dress where it should be a woman’s eccentricity which should shine through, not her clothes.
However, Ms Chaney could have wrote in more
of how Coco made her comeback in 1954 after 15 years of exile away from haute couture at the age of 71. However this was a pleasurable read, made the better by my favourite narrator Carole Boyd who added an extra dimension to the story.
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- SBA
- 09-26-16
A beautifully written biography & narration
If you could sum up Chanel in three words, what would they be?
elegant, sophisticated, Chanel no5
What did you like best about this story?
The sophisticated and eloquent writing biography of this famous woman Coco Chanel was made even more enjoyable by Carole Boyd's exquisite narration - it was charming to listen to with her lovely English accent and the french and other language names and idea. I was captured until the end - and will be seeking out more of Carole Boyd's performances.
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
so interesting - fascinating - I was hooked into Chanel's life.
1 person found this helpful