Glamour is one of the most tantalising and bewitching aspects of contemporary culture. But what exactly is it? Where does it come from? How old is it? And can anyone quite capture its magic?

Stephen Gundle answers all these questions and more in this first ever history of the phenomenon, from Paris in the tumultuous final decades of the eighteenth century through to Hollywood, New York, and Monte Carlo in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from Napoleon to Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe, from Beau Brummell to Gianni Versace.

• Chapter 1   Walter Scott and the origins of glamour
• Chapter 2   Building the shopping city in London and Paris
• Chapter 3   The birth of sex appeal
• Chapter 4   Wealth and style in the gilded age
• Chapter 5   Café society and the publicity phenomenon
• Chapter 6   The Hollywood star system
• Chapter 7   The Riviera touch
• Chapter 8   Glamour for the masses
• Chapter 9   Photography and the public image
• Chapter 10   Style, pastiche, and excess
• Chapter 11   Harlots and heiresses

"Glamour: A History is on the whole a wonderfully engaging read"

- V. R. Macbeth, Otago Daily Times, 1/11/2008