Christina Baker Kline, New York Times Bestselling author of A Piece of the World and Orphan Train The story of Alva Vanderbilt is long. Meet Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont, living proof that history is made by those who know the rules-and how to break them. A Well-Behaved Woman is an extraordinary portrait of a strong, fascinating woman who rose above societal convention and even her own expectations to become so much more than anyone might have predicted. The marriage was a political one despite Alva's. With a nod to Jane Austen and Edith Wharton, in A Well-Behaved Woman Therese Anne Fowler paints a glittering world of enormous wealth contrasted against desperate poverty, of social ambition and social scorn, of friendship and betrayal, and an unforgettable story of a remarkable woman. The full title of A Well-Behaved Woman includes the subtitle A Novel of the Vanderbilts which is mostly accurate, but in truth this story is more specifically about Alva Erskine Smith, who married into the Vanderbilt family to save herself and her sisters from their family's failing fortunes. Ignored by New York’s old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designed and built 9 mansions, hosted grand balls, and arranged for her daughter to marry a duke.īut Alva also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement. The riveting novel of iron-willed Alva Vanderbilt and her illustrious family as they rule Gilded-Age New York, from the New York Times bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.Īlva Smith, her southern family destitute after the Civil War, married into one of America’s great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts
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