A WOLFE at the Door
Town & Country US|May 2024
This month's adaptation of Tom Wolfe's second novel, reminds us that the author lit more than one bonfire.
JOSH ZAJDMAN
A WOLFE at the Door

As literary conflagrations go, not even Dido's funeral pyre can compete with Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, the 1987 megawatt best-seller, which expanded the playing field for Wolfe, who until then had been best known as a journalist. Like Zola a century before, Wolfe treated the novel as a kind of social document, a reflection of an age.

This story is from the May 2024 edition of Town & Country US.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the May 2024 edition of Town & Country US.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM TOWN & COUNTRY USView All
THE MASTER BUILDER
Town & Country US

THE MASTER BUILDER

For the collector and philanthropist Amalia Amoedo, living with art and supporting the people who make it isn't just a choice it's a tradition. Is it any wonder she's known as Latin America's Peggy Guggenheim?

time-read
8 mins  |
February 2025
The ROTHSCHILD and the SNOWSTORM
Town & Country US

The ROTHSCHILD and the SNOWSTORM

Four decades after Jeannette May's remains were found on an Italian mountainside, the authorities have reopened the investigation into who or what-killed the former Lady de Rothschild.Was it a kidnapping? A mafia hit? Or have the rumors been wrong all along?

time-read
9 mins  |
February 2025
The WIZARD of MADISON
Town & Country US

The WIZARD of MADISON

Suit up before stepping inside Giorgio Armani's new uptown Oz.

time-read
1 min  |
February 2025
WHERE THE WILDLY EXPENSIVE THINGS ARE
Town & Country US

WHERE THE WILDLY EXPENSIVE THINGS ARE

In a small city in the Dutch hinterlands, sharp-elbowed dealers hunt the biggest game of all: billionaire collectors voracious for treasures from the last art fair that truly matters.

time-read
8 mins  |
February 2025
READ THE FINE PRINT
Town & Country US

READ THE FINE PRINT

Nestled among the winding, narrow streets of Berkeley, California, which curve past a pastiche of architectural styles, including the material opulence of the spare modern mansions belonging to the tech elite, Susan Filter and Peter Koch's home stands apart.

time-read
4 mins  |
February 2025
Begin Here
Town & Country US

Begin Here

Take a page from Sir Joseph Duveen, the man who taught America how to collect.

time-read
3 mins  |
February 2025
NOW YOU SEE HER
Town & Country US

NOW YOU SEE HER

Bertha Russell would be so disappointed. When Carrie Coon, who plays the calculating social climber on The Gilded Age, sits down at the Regency Bar & Grill, just a few blocks and about 140 years from the fictional mansion where her character resides, it's the tail end of the restaurant's infamous power breakfast—a crucial error in timing for anyone hoping to rub elbows with New York City's ruling class.

time-read
7 mins  |
February 2025
Give Me Liberty!
Town & Country US

Give Me Liberty!

Creative freedom, it turns out, is a very wise investment.

time-read
1 min  |
February 2025
How Young Is Too Young to Start an Art Collection?
Town & Country US

How Young Is Too Young to Start an Art Collection?

It will take more than just a trust fund to get them to sell you that painting.

time-read
2 mins  |
February 2025
Look Where You're Going
Town & Country US

Look Where You're Going

How many teenagers do you know who spend their free time doing this?

time-read
1 min  |
February 2025