Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune
    Unavailable
    Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune
    Unavailable
    Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune
    Audiobook10 hours

    Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune

    Written by Mary Jo Ignoffo

    Narrated by Nan McNamara

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The first full-length biography of Sarah Winchester, the subject of the movie Winchester starring Helen Mirren, now available for the first time in audio.

    Since her death in 1922, Sarah Winchester has been perceived as a mysterious, haunted figure. After inheriting a vast fortune upon the death of her husband in 1881, Sarah purchased a simple farmhouse in San José, California. She began building additions to the house and continued construction on it for the next twenty years. A hostile press cast Sarah as the conscience of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company-a widow shouldering responsibility for the many deaths caused by the rifle that brought her riches. She was accused of being a ghost-obsessed spiritualist, and to this day it is largely believed that the extensive construction she executed on her San José house was done to appease the ghouls around her.

    But was she really as guilt-ridden and superstitious as history remembers her? When Winchester's home was purchased after her death, it was transformed into a tourist attraction. The bizarre, sprawling mansion and the enigmatic nature of Winchester's life were exaggerated by the new owners to generate publicity for their business. But as the mansion has become more widely known, the person of Winchester has receded from reality, and she is only remembered for squandering her riches to ward off disturbed spirits.

    Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune demystifies the life of this unique American. In the first full-length biography of Winchester, author and historian Mary Jo Ignoffo unearths the truth about this notorious eccentric, revealing that she was not a maddened spiritualist driven by remorse but an intelligent, articulate woman who sought to protect her private life amidst the chaos of her public existence. The author takes listeners through Winchester's several homes, explores her private life, and, by excerpting from personal correspondence, gives the heiress a voice for the first time since her death. Ignoffo's research reveals that Winchester's true financial priority was not dissipating her fortune on the mansion in San José but investing it for a philanthropic legacy.

    For too long Sarah Winchester has existed as a ghost herself-a woman whose existence lies somewhere between the facts of her life and a set of sensationalized recollections of who she may have been. Captive of the Labyrinth finally puts to rest the myths about this remarkable woman, and, in the process, uncovers the legacy she intended to leave behind.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 7, 2017
    ISBN9781524779177
    Unavailable
    Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune

    Related to Captive of the Labyrinth

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Jan 12, 2024

      When we start researching our family tree we often set out with the romantic idea of finding connections to royalty. If not royalty, maybe a hero, or even a connection to an iconic moment in history – we will come to some examples of these a little l

      10 min read

    • Article

      Testament Of Love

      Oct 19, 2022

      Testament Of Love
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Ark Of History

      Apr 4, 2023

      The Ark Of History
      2 min read

    • Article

      Haunted King’s Lynn

      Jan 27, 2022

      Haunted King’s Lynn
      9 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Get Physical

      Mar 21, 2024

      Many stories of tactile ghosts are recorded across the years from séance chambers and haunted houses – entities that stroke, caress, tap, grasp, poke, pinch, punch, push, pull, scratch, slap, beat, levitate and even on occasion take intimate libertie

      9 min read

    • Article

      Radio

      Mar 8, 2023

      Radio
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Murder The Strange Case Of Walter Sickert And Jack The Ripper

      May 19, 2022

      Whitechapel, London, the autumn of 1888. Through the midnight streets stalks a dark figure, wrapped in a long, checkered coat. As the secretive figure makes his way along Copenhagen Street, he attracts the attention of a group of young girls. Talk of

      15 min read

    • Article

      Many Sides Of The Law

      Mar 6, 2019

      I have been reading a lot of local true crime lately, between my work for this column, and in developing the Nanaimo Museum’s current feature exhibit, Nanaimo Mysteries. This exhibit focused on murders, a safe-cracker, Brother XII’s cult, and the sup

      11 min read

    • Article

      Paranormal Cold Case

      Oct 28, 2021

      It’s the 1970s, inside a terraced house in Walthamstow, East London, and Tyronne’s sister is saying odd things: “She started talking about the Blitz, Hitler, rationing. It disturbed my mum, because it was coming out of a two-year-old!” Then, one day,

      2 min read

    • Article

      Henry The Holy

      Jan 21, 2021

      Henry The Holy
      7 min read

    • Article

      Wendy Holden

      Sep 14, 2023

      Wendy Holden
      2 min read

    • Article

      ...thomas And Jean Weir

      Aug 12, 2023

      ...thomas And Jean Weir
      2 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Sep 30, 2021

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    • Article

      Old Wives’ Tale

      Oct 31, 2019

      Old Wives’ Tale
      14 min read

    • Article

      What’s So Great About Jane?

      Mar 26, 2020

      What’s So Great About Jane?
      3 min read

    • Article

      How UIC's Luis Alberto Urrea Became The Literary Conscience Of The Border

      Mar 21, 2018

      Luis Alberto Urrea, whose name has the lofty ring of an artist you think you know but you can't place, and who has quietly built the kind of reputation that validates such feelings, is about to become, finally, arguably, after decades of books and tr

      9 min read

    • Article

      For History Lovers

      Oct 16, 2020

      Burning the Books takes us on a 3 000-year journey through the destruction of knowledge and the fight to preserve it. Richard Ovenden explains how attacks on libraries and archives have been a feature of history since ancient times but have increased

      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Feb 18, 2021

      In January’s Letters, Marek Pruszewicz refers to Britain as having an “obsession” with the Second World War, and implies that the British have a deep national conviction that Britain has always been a “good” country. I think he is entirely wrong in t

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Life of GENTLEMAN JACK

      May 18, 2023

      The Life of GENTLEMAN JACK
      8 min read

    • Article

      In The Memoirs Of Wallis Simpson We Find A Terrible Echo Of The Treatment Of Meghan

      Mar 8, 2021

      To borrow a phrase, it seems that Megxit means Megxit. The notion that Harry and Meghan could function as semi-detached royals in semi-exile was always far fetched, as is becoming increasingly apparent. It is also inevitable that their alienation fro

      4 min read

    • Article

      Churchill’s Mommie Dearest

      Jun 2, 2021

      Jennie Churchill, Winston’s American mother, died shockingly prematurely 100 years ago this month, on 29th June 1921, after a fall downstairs. She was 67 and in the prime of life, newly married to a man 20 years younger and had finally found a way of

      5 min read

    • Article

      Coming Alive

      Jun 12, 2020

      Coming Alive
      4 min read

    • Article

      How Jackie O Helped Bring ‘Sally Hemings’ to Life

      Oct 4, 2022

      Barbara Chase-Riboud remembers Jacqueline Kennedy's role in publishing her groundbreaking debut novel. The post How Jackie O Helped Bring ‘Sally Hemings’ to Life appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Writing’s On The Wall

      Jul 25, 2021

      Writing’s On The Wall
      1 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Wright, Zauner, Simon, and More

      Apr 20, 2021

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Richard Wright, Michelle Zauner, our own Ed Simon, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Wright, Zauner, Simon, and More appeared first on The Mill

      3 min read

    Reviews for Captive of the Labyrinth

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words