Well Behaved Woman A Novel of the Vanderbilts

From the New York Times bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald comes an epic and unforgettable novel about a Southern belle named Alva who married William K. Vanderbilt--and became the force behind one of the most influential dynasties of New York's Gilded Age.

After the Civil War, young Alva Smith and her sisters are left with nothing but their good name. Then she is introduced to William Vanderbilt, whose nouveau riche family is upending established New York society. They marry, but find themselves excluded by the old-money doyennes who control access to the city's social and political scene.

Refused entry, Alva designs and builds mansions and hosts her own grand balls. Denied a box seat at the Academy of Music, she helps found the Metropolitan Opera House. Outspoken, brave, and fiercely independent, Alva defies convention by championing suffrage for women, African-Americans and immigrants, and supporting labor union strikes. And, when William's attentions wander, Alva puts her future at risk--with a scandalous strategy that changes her life.

Set in Manhattan, Newport, and Paris, filled with glittering period detail and a cast of characters that includes the Astors, the Rothschilds, the Whitneys, the Belmonts, and other notable names from the era, A Well Behaved Woman tells the remarkable story of a woman who would not be denied.

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.

Alva 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. 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. 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.

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. Meet Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont, living proof that history is made by those who know the rules--and how to break them.

The New York Times and USA Today bestseller

A 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.

Alva 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. 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. 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.

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. Meet Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont, living proof that history is made by those who know the rules--and how to break them.