Paul Spicer's biography of Alice de Janzé, The Temptress, is a very breezy, gossipy read that chronicles the sad life of American socialite and heiress Alice Silverthorne and her involvement with the wealthy and aristocratic circle in Kenya's Happy Valley in the 1920s. A life that began with so much promise that ended in tragedy. The portrait Spicer creates of Alice is somewhat impressionistic based on stories, letters and journals as well as the reminiscences of his own mother's friendship with her. And at the heart of the story, which really does read like fiction, is the murder of famous Happy Valley resident, Joss Hay, Lord Erroll, who was on again-off again lover of Alice. A crime Spicer purports may well have been committed by Alice de Janzé.
Alice was born in Buffalo, New York in 1899 into a very privileged and wealthy family. Her father, William, made his money in the lumber trade and her mother was from one of the wealthiest and most distinguished families in America. The union was frowned upon by Alice's maternal grandparents and it was to end unhappily with the early death of her mother, Louise Silverthorne. Alice was raised by her father, who doted on her and gave in to her every whim, which may well have caused some of her relationship problems later in life. She traveled extensively with him on business and was often mistaken for a traveling companion rather than a daughter, which caused much consternation among Louise's relatives.
Silverthorne eventually lost custody of her and her teenage years were spent with her grandparents, which Alice found stifling after such an extravagant upbringing. She went from feeling the center of her father's life to feeling as though she was abandoned by him, which probably didn't help much later either. When she was old enough she become involved in the debutante scene in Chicago, but quickly tired of it and moved on instead to the city's more exciting and seamier side filled with jazz clubs and speakeasies. Alice was a striking young woman and had no end of suitors and supposedly was even involved with a gangster. Her family worried about her and sent her to Paris to try and rein her in, which would not only give her a sense of independence but change the direction of her life completely.
In Paris she would meet Count Frédéric de Janzé who fell in love with Alice. He was a quiet intellectual who loved reading and would be calming influence on her. His family approved of the match and they were married and had two daughters. Despite Frédéric's deep love for Alice she could never reciprocate his feelings and felt no more than close friendship with him. Alice suffered from a form of bipolar disorder which would plague her throughout her life and worsen as she got older. Frédéric was willing to do anything for her to lessen the effects of her illness, so in 1925 they travelled to Kenya where the intense sunlight and altitude would would be beneficial for her moods and outlook. Their daughters remained in France with their grandparents. Alice fell in love with the country and would spend most of the rest of her life there.
Kenya would have another effect on her as well. It's there that she met Joss Hay who would become a significant person in her life as well several other men with whom she would fall in love or have relationships. I've already mentioned Kenya's Happy Valley and the louche lifestyle enjoyed by so many of the expatriate community there. There are all sorts of stories about the debauchery that went on--spouse swapping, parties lasting well into the night and attended by guests wearing their PJs, and a few others that I would turn red telling you about here, so those will remain between the book's pages.
Infidelity doesn't seem to have been much of a problem in Happy Valley and I wondered as I was reading if there were any happy and successful marriages. Although Frédéric was deeply in love with Alice, he agreed to a divorce. She likely only married him in the first place to get out from under the thumb of her family, but she wanted to pursue happiness elsewhere. Joss Hay was a known womanizer, and Alice was only one of his conquests, though it was an affair that would last for over two decades. Alice had met another man, Raymund de Trafford, who she believed to be her true love. It would take five years before they would marry, five very obsessive years, but in the end they were only married for a matter of months before Alice realized her mistake. He was a gambler and a drinker and Alice found his behavior untenable. They eventually divorced as well, and in the end she remained alone in Kenya.
On January 24, 1941 Joss Hay was murdered in his automobile while driving home late at night. Although Alice was cleared early on from any wrong doing, Spicer offers an alternative solution to the murder that has to this day remains unsolved, a solution that involves jealousy and anger. Whether Alice de Janzé had anything to do with his death is purely supposition based on hearsay, as well as letters that no longer exist. In any case the investigation of Hay's death was completely bungled from the beginning, so the truth may never be known.
I rarely read nonfiction so quickly, but this was a book that took me only a very few days to finish. I'm not entirely sure what I think of Alice de Janzé, though she is portrayed in a reasonably sympathetic light. Every life has extenuating circumstances, but I did feel sorry for Alice's daughters who seemed to spend so little time with their mother. They remained in France while Alice was living the high life on another continent. Just how many bad decisions in adulthood can be blamed on a bad childhood? She seemed to care more for her many menageries (she collected wildlife while in Kenya) than she did for her children. Spicer notes that the daughters never held a grudge and spoke only warmly of their mother, though much of the book is based on stories that may or may not be wholly factual, so it's hard to know where the truth actually lies. Spicer's mother was a resident of Happy Valley for a time and friend of Alice's, so many stories were passed down to him, as well he interviewed many of the people who lived there.
Where Spicer excels is in fashioning a snapshot of a particular time and place with all sorts of interesting details. Complete accuracy I may not be able to vouch for, but The Temptress certainly made for interesting and entertaining reading.