A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler

Her effort pays off William inherits $65 million in 1885 though she finds neither love nor sexual pleasure with her amiable, self-absorbed husband. Marrying well being the only way to keep her family secure, Alva sets her sights on railroad scion William K. In 1874, 21-year-old Alva Smith and her three sisters have impeccable antecedents but no money. Meet Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont, living proof that history is made by those who know the rules-and how to break them.Īs accomplished as its subject, redoubtable socialite and women's suffrage crusader Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, Fowler's engrossing successor to 2013's Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, again showcases her genius for seeing beyond the myths of iconic women. 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.

But Alva also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement. Ignored by New York’s old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designed and built nine mansions, hosted grand balls, and arranged for her daughter to marry a duke. The riveting novel of iron-willed Alva Vanderbilt and her illustrious family as they rule Gilded-Age New York, written by Therese Anne Fowler, a 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. The New York Times and USA Today bestseller

A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler