Alva Smith Vanderbilt (1853–1933) married into America's richest family when her own family's fortunes declined drastically, one of the calculated moves that made her reputation as an opportunist and gold digger. But Alva gave as well as took. To William K. Vanderbilt, the Commodore's grandson, and his nouveau riche relatives Alva brought an aristocratic lineage and the determination to have the doors of Manhattan's upper echelon opened to them. Her strategies, such as hosting sumptuous balls and building opulent mansions, eventually turned around Caroline Astor's set.
Alva had more substance than her reputation suggests. Independent and opinionated, she defied advice and divorced the philandering William, married a second time for love, and became a leader in the movement for women’s suffrage.
A Well-Behaved Woman will appeal to readers interested in how the Gilded Age rich behaved and spent their money. Others will regret that Fowler gives scant attention to the last decades of Alva’s life, when she crusaded for causes other than her own social standing.
Interested in scrubbing the reputations of infamous American women, Therese Anne Fowler earlier wrote Z, a historical novel about Zelda Fitzgerald.
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