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The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed

The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Dynasty", "Dallas"...."Gucci"?
Review: Having worked in the fashion industry for the likes of Gianni Versace and Georgio Armani, I was naturally inclined to read this intriguing book based on the rise, fall and rise again of the house of "Gucci". I found the first half of the book to be the most facinating. The author does an excellent job in vividly decribing the humble beginnings of Guccio Gucci's small leather goods business to its eventual capitulation into a Billion dollar company...

The book reads right out of a script of "Dallas" or "Dynasty"...with the squablings, betrayals, greed and glamour associated with those t.v. shows....only this book's storyline is real. I was particularly impressed with the great amount of effort put into decribing each of the important characters associated with the Gucci saga. One really walks away with a true sense of the mindset behind people like Marizio Gucci and his power-hungry wife...

I am confident anyone reading this book will find that it is hard to put down (and will encourage the reader to run to the latest "Gucci" boutique and pick up a crocodile handbag!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow! intrigue and family wars
Review: I couldn't put this book down. I am not a big follower of the fashion world but found the content and writing style incredibly riveting. This book covers the story of the Gucci family, the evolution of the business, the hostile takeover attempt and the tragic death of Maurizio Gucci. Strongly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: my favorite book
Review: i really enjoyed,"the house of gucci." the book was so interesting and uncovered things about the family and the fashion house that i never knew before. i would recommend it for anyone, no matter what types of books u like.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: INTELLIGENT AND AMUSING
Review: I thought that I had read more than I ever wanted to know about the Gucci family until I read this book by Sara Forden. It is fun to read but at the same time highly intelligent and perceptive.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Rodolfo's teaching
Review: I'm from Taiwan so I read Chinese translation. My opinion just focus on Rodolfo's teaching his son, Maurizio, just gave him small cash to avoid spending unlimited. However, he didn't thought they were a rich, famous family, whatever they eat or wear, they used the best. Not like poor family children, he didn't feel what's wrong to spend money in luxury way.I think why Maurizio couldn't control using because of this, he couldn't ask money in the face of his father but his friend and Louis, they could lend him. As long as he take the authority, his weakness show on cash flow immediately. If he had a brother like Roy Disney, maybe the result is different.I think it's a problem for some family, which parents was born from poor but their children live wealthy life to teach them how to cherish or the meaning to use proper money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Look, GUCCI !!!
Review: If you enjoyed the "GODFATHER" trilogy, you'd like this book. The Gucci family is similar to the Corleone family. At one point of their lives, they were successful in business or "business", incredibly rich and glamourous. At another point in their lives, they were greedy and mad, which made them murderous.
From this book, readers can learn about the reality/history behind the GUCCI brand, the GUCCI loafer, the way business was done, the love and hate between all kinds of people in our society (from Milan to NYC) ...
If you follow the headlines, you should know that after the WAR between LVMH and Gucci, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute took over the majority shares of the Gucci Group. The two men that saved Gucci (Tom Ford and Mr De Sole) in the 90s, left Gucci last April.
Another exciting chapter waits ahead of Gucci, SS 2005 ReadyToWear showed us that the Gucci story will go on, so far so good on the RUNWAY.
I would highly recommand this book to business students, Italian food lovers, and GUCCI fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love it! Must-reading for those of you that own GUCCI
Review: It's a great story that gives you amazing insight into the house of Gucci...loved it! Now I have countless anecdotes to go along with my handbags.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A sensational story that had some dull spots
Review: Overall, I did enjoy this book, but I felt as if too much time was spent on discussing the House of Gucci's business dealings and not enough time to some of the currently living characters. While it was interesting to read about the early Guccis, I was really hoping for more on the current House of Gucci in addition to that. It seems as if the author spent a lot of time - and time well spent - in her historical reasearch, but really only dicussed the Tom Ford era as an afterthought or to satisfy an editor's request. It was a worthwhile purchase, but at times read like the Wall Street Journal.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fascinating, if not disturbing, chronicle
Review: The House of Gucci asserts itself as a singular dichotomy of both highly bizarre personal tales of the self-destructive Gucci family as well as the equally strange goings-on of the business side of things as well. It reads not unlike an incredibly enthralling novel of deceit, selfishness, lust, greed, and underhanded connivances quite unlike any other.

What makes this even more compelling is the incredible fact that it really happened. It begins with a somewhat banal and inauspicious start as the author recounts the beginning of Gucci with its assiduous founder, Guccio Gucci. As the family history unfolds, however, we find ourselves grossly immersed in the almost unbelievable sordid tales of the inimitable Gucci clan going from Guccio's three sons and how the most industrious of them, Aldo, built the Gucci empire almost single-handedly from a local phenomenon selling primarily handbags and loafers to worldwide acclaim selling a veritable cornucopia of luxury merchandise. And that is, for all intents and purposes, where the meat of the infinitely bizarre story begins with the 3rd generation Gucci, Maurizio, whose cold-blooded murder is eerily recounted on the 1st page of the book.

Overall, I recommend this quasi-novel of nonfiction to anyone who enjoys a riveting yarn that reads like a murder mystery. Invariably, it also makes for a great read for anyone in management on how to run, as well as how NOT to run, a business.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: reads like a history book
Review: The story of Gucci was interesting. In fact, reality surpassses fiction in this case.
However, I was expecting more of a narrative feel; this reads like a collection of well researched facts. Some of the other reviews say it is like a novel - I think it is more like an interesting history book. Especially at the beginning -hard to get into the first few chapters it is written in such a factual, boring way.


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