Book Synopsis

The complete photographic series from the iconic documentary, where wealth, overreach, and reality-TV culture converge in one distinctly American aria by Lauren Greenfield, named by The New York Times as "America's foremost visual chronicler of the plutocracy".

A century after Theodore Dreiser and F. Scott Fitzgerald mapped the American Dream's promise and peril, Lauren Greenfield's latest photographic monograph, The Queen of Versailles: An American Allegory, arrives in bookstores to visually recapture the origin story behind her hit 2012 documentary film and the 2025 Broadway musical--collectively transforming a documentary mirror onto the national stage, where wealth, overreach, and reality-TV culture converge in one distinctly American aria. Named by The New York Times as "America's foremost visual chronicler of the plutocracy," and the best-selling author of four award-winning monographs that incisively deconstruct turn-of-the-century America (Fast Forward, Girl Culture, Thin, Generation Wealth), Greenfield now presents The Queen of Versailles: An American Allegory--the first publication of the complete photographic series from the iconic documentary, featuring essays by Greenfield and longtime collaborator and curator Trudy Wilner-Stack.

Review Quotes

"....perhaps the single best film on the Great Recession." --Ezra Klein "The Washington Post"

"...an extraordinary case study...A real-estate portrait that... emerges as a metaphor for the American Dream itself." -- "The New Yorker"

"If this film is a portrait, it is also a mirror." --A.O. Scott "The New York Times"

"The loss of grotesque wealth has never been so entertaining - or weirdly moving."-- "The Guardian"

About the Author

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and photographer Lauren Greenfield has produced groundbreaking work on consumerism, youth culture, and gender in acclaimed documentary films, series, and commercials (Social Studies, The Kingmaker, Generation Wealth, The Queen of Versailles, Thin, #LikeAGirl) and photography books (Generation Wealth, Fast Forward, Girl Culture). The Queen of Versailles -- named by Vogue as one of the best documentaries of all time -- is now a Broadway musical with music by Stephen Schwartz, starring Kristin Chenoweth and F. Murray Abraham. A Harvard graduate, Greenfield's work is exhibited in major museums worldwide, has earned top honors across photography, documentary, and commercial directing, and has been profiled in many publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian.