A review by canadiantiquarian
Inventing the It Girl: How Elinor Glyn Created the Modern Romance and Conquered Early Hollywood by Hilary A. Hallett

3.0

For better and worse, Hallett focuses on context as much as subject in her exploration of Elinor Glyn. At its best, context places Glyn firmly within her time, the impulses exist alongside the influences and eradicate assumptions a modern reader might make about the writer and her motivations. At its worst, Hallett’s text is a jumbled mix of tangents overshadowing her subject as the text veers into the biographer’s professional wheelhouse—women in the early days of Hollywood. Nevertheless, the biography is full of great context and connections for interested readers willing to make the journey.